....until the 1990's, when the JNA (Jugoslovenska narodna armija), Yugoslav People's Army, modified around 200 (no real verifiable source behind this number) SKS rifles into Sniper/DMR configuration by taking the Zrak ON-2 Scope from the Zastava M69 Sniper rifle, re-camming it from the original 8mm Mauser to 7.62x39 and designing a sort of reverse-pu style mount with a new mounting bracket

Some of these ex-sniper Yugo sks's were imported, various sources I've read say that around 70-100 of these rifles were imported. None had mounts or optics (as far as I know), very few had bases, the majority were only drilled for them.

The majority of those were the Yugo M59/66 model, very, very few of the M59's were imported in this configuration.

Here are two complete Yugo SKS snipers, from my personal collection, an M59 and M59/66 (The grenade launcher on the 59/66 has been modified for California compliance)

 

....until the 1990's, when the JNA (Jugoslovenska narodna armija), Yugoslav People's Army, modified around 200 (no real verifiable source behind this number) SKS rifles into Sniper/DMR configuration by taking the Zrak ON-2 Scope from the Zastava M69 Sniper rifle, re-camming it from the original 8mm Mauser to 7.62x39 and designing a sort of reverse-pu style mount with a new mounting bracket

Some of these ex-sniper Yugo sks's were imported, various sources I've read say that around 70-100 of these rifles were imported. None had mounts or optics (as far as I know), very few had bases, the majority were only drilled for them.

The majority of those were the Yugo M59/66 model, very, very few of the M59's were imported in this configuration.

Here are two complete Yugo SKS snipers, from my personal collection, an M59 and M59/66 (The grenade launcher on the 59/66 has been modified for California compliance)

Can I have you reach out to me via Email? I believe that I have a Yugo Sniper 59/66, but I am looking for ways to confirm my suspicions and verify that it's actually an original.
I am very interested in chatting with you about it and hopefully getting some followup.
My email is Silasjnewsome@ gmail. com

 

Here are some interesting details about these modifications. The eye relief of the Zrak On-2 scope is longer then that of the PU (and it sits farther back). Because of that, the Yugo M59 had extended rubber buttpads attached to make the length of pull better. There are a few M59 scopeless SKS snipers with this extended buttpad, some M59/66's also had it

Detailed photo:





Interestingly, in the Russian SKS sniper trials the PU scope was moved to the left side of the receiver, this offset allowed the rifle to be loaded using stripper clips. The JNA took a different approach, the scope itself was moved further back. This allowed for the rifle to be loaded with Yugo M67 ammo using the provided stripper clips. Here are some photos:









The base and mount is a very interesting design, it's like a very high, reverse style PU mount with a double thumb screw. Unlike the single PU thumb screw, the JNA added a second screw to lock and prevent the first screw from coming loose





Details of the Yugo base/mount

 

The Yugo SKS base compared to the Soviet PU base





Soviet PU Mount on a Soviet PU base





Soviet PU mount on a Yugo SKS base, the PU mount is obviously reversed in this picture





History/comparison of the scopes and mounts. This shows an interesting evolution/adaptation of different design elements

Top: Zrak ON-2 scope in 8mm Mauser on a mount for the Zastava M69 Sniper Rifle
Middle: Russian PU scope in 7.62x54r on a mount for the PU Sniper Rifle
Bottom: Zrak ON-2 scope, converted to 7.62x39 on a mount for the SKS Sniper Rifle







This picture shows two Zrak ON-2 Scopes on their respective mounts.
Right: Zrak ON-2 in the original 8mm Mauser calibration in a mount for the Zastava M69 Sniper rifle
Left: Zrak ON-2 converted to 7.62x39 in a mount for the SKS Sniper rifle





Zrak ON-2 with turrets calibrated for 8mm Mauser





Zrak ON-2 with replaced turrets, calibrated for 7.62x39





The reticle for both of these remained unchanged, it's a reverse-style POSP Warsaw pact rangefinding reticle

 

How do they shoot?

Not great, like an SKS, roughly 3-4 moa on the M59/66. The scoped M59/66 isn't that comfortable to shoot as the scope sits too far back. The M59 is a lot better with the added buttpad. The Soviet SKS test rifles were probably better in this respect

Looking at the first couple of photos of the Russian trial SKS, I can't help but think that a cheekriser should have been added when these were converted. Obviously a lot of work went into the design and manufacture of a very limited amount of these bases and mounts. An extended rubber buttpad was added, why not a quick/easy cheekriser?.

It is possible that these rifles had them, but that they were removable, so when the rifle was packed for export it was the rifle only, no cheekriser, scope or mount included


This Sunday I did an unofficial test using a few different kinds of ammunition at 100 yards. For groups, the M59 was shot since it has much better ergonomics due to the extended buttpad.
The scope mount had a problem coming loose and had to be tightened a couple of times, it's definitely not nearly as solid as the PU sniper mount.
Out of the different types of ammo used, the Geco target was by far the best out of the bunch (by a big margin)

This is the best group, Geco brass cased target ammo at 100 yards.
Although, to be fair, if I used the Tulammo/Wolf results, the rifle wouldn't do nearly as well - this brings me back to the point about the quality of 1949 soviet ammunition used by the proving grounds

Of course this was the best group, others were not as good, some were pretty bad. Ammo made a huge difference, Tulamo was (not surprisingly) pretty bad
I'll do this test again at some point in the future, with the M59/66 as well, I'll also try the Yugo surplus M67 ammo out of curiosity


Update

DaveFromSheffield recently sent me a scanned copy of a Slovenian ON-2 Scope Manual. The manual, which unfortunately is undated, is fascinating as it specifically mentions and shows the ON-2 scope modified for use on an M59/66 Yugo SKS sniper rifle. This is the only official document (that I'm aware of at this point) that shows these SKS sniper modifications. Here are some photos and an English translation I did for the parts mentioning the SKS

Cover and translation:

Optical Sight ON-2
(Description, operation and maintenance)

Index Page and translation:

1.1.3.
Two types of mounts allow the optical sight, with the appropriate division on the distance drum, to be used on the special sniper rifle 7.9 mm M69 and the semi-automatic rifle 7.62 mm M59/66

Page showing the M59/66 (and the M69) and translation:

4.1.2.
Mounting on a semi-automatic rifle 7.62 mm M59/66

The optical sight ON-2 with the mount is placed so that the spherical bearing of the body of the carrier 3 (si 3-4) rests on the spherical spout 8, and the prismatic spout under the screw 5 on the corresponding prismatic recess in the bracket 7

By turning the tightening screw 9 in a clockwise direction, the fastening of the brackets with the ON-2 sight for the rifle is performed, the tightening must not be performed with excessive force.

Closeup of the M59/66 diagram and translation:

Sl. 3-4
Mount for the semi-automatic rifle 7.62 mm M59/66

There is a lot of speculation as to what was the point of scoping an SKS, the 7.62x39 M67 Yugo round falls like a brick at distance. Most likely it was meant as a force multiplier, I will write about this later and update this post

I hope you found this interesting!

 

Looking at the first couple of photos of the Russian trial SKS, I can't help but think that a cheekriser should have been added when these were converted. Obviously a lot of work went into the design and manufacture of a very limited amount of these bases and mounts. An extended rubber buttpad was added, why not a quick/easy cheekriser?.

Thank you for posting fantastic pictures and tons of great info.

@cheekriser - i think they were well aware that this "scoped SKS setup" isn't going to have huge impact past 300 meters (mainly because of 7.62x39 rather weak performance vs other rounds). For within 300 meters shooting, cheekpad wouldn't make much of a difference anyway when engaging "human size" targets. So they kind of may dropped the ball on it because possible gains weren't worth the trouble...? No way to tell one way or another...
On the other hand, one can clearly see that soviets were taking "SKS Sniper" idea seriously. Their scopes were sitting lower and cheekpad was included for trial rifles. I actually like that setup a lot. Again, 7.62x39 was the weak link in the whole concept but for the rifle, which primary job was to control battle space within 300 meters it made sense.

Sorry for resurrecting older thread...;-)

 

Excellent! Thanks for posting! :thumbsup:

 

this should be a sticky. Thanks for the detailed documentation.

 

Nice info, thanks!

 

great thread, thanks for sharing :thumbsup: more then 25 years ago the Chinese made and imported a "sniper SKS" that had a PU like up set up

http://chinesesks.weebly.com/navy-pu-sniper.html

 

Wow. Thanks for compiling the historical information, taking the time to photograph the components, and posting the range results.

For the left of axis and/or rearward mounting scope positions, I believe the reason would be as much for spent casing clearance as it would be for stripper clip loading clearance.

Great presentation.

 

Saw this on the Calguns website. Thanks for sharing it here, too.

Top notch photography.

Does the high axis on the Yugo prevent sufficient cheek weld?

 

Does the high axis on the Yugo prevent sufficient cheek weld?

from the picture it sure looks like it doesn't have any cheek to stock weld. my SKS "para" has about the same scope height, it's a chin to stock weld, that's why I put a cheek pad/riser

never understood why the Soviets/east bloc countries didn't used a cheek pad on their snipers or scope rifles. only thing I was able to find was the below picture of them using it on rifle with PE/PEM, but wasn't used for their issued PU sniper rifles. not until the SVD, then they included it.

 

Excellent info and Pictures! Here are are couple of mine...... one “expedient” variation with M89 scope and the other An M59/66 with Extended but pad.....my 59/66 did not come with a scope base but was purchased with the ON-2 scope. I was hopeful and pleasantly surprised that the base mounted perfectly to the reciever.

 

Great info! Thanks for the presentation!

 

Wow! Great historical information and very nice examples of the Yugoslavian rifles. Thanks for taking all of the time to write this report and take all of the pictures.

 

Very fascinating Jimja, thank you for posting this info.

 

I'm glad you guys found it interesting. I'm trying to do more research on these but there is very little information out there about them. I'll update the thread if I find anything new/interesting

I made a couple of edits to the original post (for example, I've never seen an M59/66 with the extended buttpad but Mxwllbkr posted a photo of one)

I spent a few minutes in photoshop to do an overlay, out of curiosity, showing the scope position of the OKB-180 trial rifle (It had a higher mount than the Tula, also had a cheekriser) vs the Yugo



Here is the rough result, the Soviet rifle is black, the Yugo is red

 

Great information on the Soviet and JNA scoped SKS rifles.
I have never seen the Soviet SKS scoped trials rifles before.

I was aware of the Yugoslavian scoped SKS rifles.

I put a ZRAK M89 scope on a Yugoslavian 59/66 rifle some years ago as a clone of the so called " field expedient 59/66 DMR SKS".

It has very nice ergos in eye relief and cheekweld.
With M67 ammunition it is a very capable shooter.

 

Very cool stuff Jimba. Thanks for sharing. Nice to know there are other serious SKS guys here in CA.

 

An excellent read, valuable information, and professional photos. Alot of time and effort that is greatly appreciated. Thank you Jimja.

 

Photos helped me a lot ..thanks..

 

Nice write up, thanks

 

Nice photography and good information! Thank you very much!

 

Most excellent and informative. Thank you for sharing. I guess I've got a couple more wish list SKS to hunt for now thanks to you!

 

Chin weld...I am plagued with that when shooting my PU sniper. Its apparent from photos, high mounted scopes were common on East Bloc weapons. I can only guess the rationale was in winter with heavy clothing, the drop of the stock along with the high mounted scope did not make any difference.

We use the term sniper but I think the mindset of the SKS scoped was a Designated Marksman role at the rifle squad level as the SVD sniper rifle fulfilled.


A rifleman in a rifle squad with a bit better field of view and accuracy is a benefit. In such a role, a scoped SKS makes sense and is an economical solution.

Great thread and highly informative. Thanks to all .

 

I believe the style/design of the various rifles used by the Russian/Soviet Union were also part of the reason for a high set of optics off the bore line.

A bolt gun, SKS and AK47/M/74 all have characteristics that dictated high clearance.

The bolt handle clearance on a Mosin Nagant, high set fixed sights on the SKS and AK contributed to this.
The cartridge ejection angle was also a factor.
Wreapon disassembly on the SKS and AK also dictated optics placement.

The original M16 carry handle design suffered some of the same restrictions.
Not in disassembly but in optics height.
The advent of the "flat top" picatinny rail design changed this issue in the M16.

Left off setting of the optics on commbloc weapons helped to overcome some of the assembly/disassembly restrictions in those firearms. To do so without optics removal.

The distinction in a marksman vs sniper weapon is certainly true.

 

I believe the style/design of the various rifles used by the Russian/Soviet Union were also part of the reason for a high set of optics off the bore line.

A bolt gun, SKS and AK47/M/74 all have characteristics that dictated high clearance.

The bolt handle clearance on a Mosin Nagant, high set fixed sights on the SKS and AK contributed to this.
The cartridge ejection angle was also a factor.
Wreapon disassembly on the SKS and AK also dictated optics placement.

All good points, but also, don't forget their obsession with ability to use irons, even when optic is in place. SVD scope package had room to be lower over the bore for example, but they keep it higher to have clear line of sight for iron sights. This is kind of interesting because at that point, mounts were really solid (for SVD) and return to zero for optic was within SVD rifle optimal accuracy anyway...

 

I intended to include that but forgot as a typed up the response. I did allude to that but did not go into detail "high set fixed sights on the SKS and AK contributed to this."
Thanks for the add on.