SG Works, an establishment I was only slightly familiar with, has made a system that completely converts your SKS into a little AUG-ish looking bullpup. They have been around for a little while, but this was the first one of their conversions to grace our shop. The kits are available for $279 on the SG website.
Initial reactions from myself and a few of the staff was a significant amount of skepticism over how well it would actually work. Matter of fact, had I been a bit more precipitate, I might have won a few lunch bets on that.
The most common customization we see on an SKS is the conversion from a fixed 10-round mag to a detachable 20-round magazine. This one has it, and in particular, a TapCo 20-round mag, for whatever that’s worth. Outside of that, the bullpup conversion essentially moves the trigger forward, alters the safety to a forward mounted push-button and encases everything in textured black polymer. It also gives you several rails so you can festoon your SKS with whatever optics and accessories you choose. Sergei Simonov never saw this coming.
Well, these things are only cool if they function with some measure of reliability, so I snatched up a box of Hornady’s finest, and headed to the range for a function test, trying to suppress any anxiety that the whole thing might self-destruct at the first shot. I have this weird predisposition to view any unproven design with skepticism until it’s been test-fired, preferably by someone else who maybe lacks my affinity for things like binocular vision and having ten digits with opposable thumbs.
I loaded up the TapCo mag, which functioned remarkably well for a $10 piece of light plastic, and tentatively sent a shot downrange. The SKS burped once, cycled cleanly, and lightly bumped my shoulder. The conversion didn’t come apart in my hands, and nothing exploded. If the gun had eyes, it would have glanced sideways at me and said, “What else?”
So yeah, we went through the better part of that box of ammo in this fashion, and did it pretty quickly. Cycle and function of both gun and mag were flawless, firing rapidly or slowly. I can’t really vouch for the accuracy, as the gun didn’t have any optic on it, and I was shooting at 15 yards. I can verify that it easily hit an 8-foot tall steel baffle every time, so there’s that.
To wrap this up, I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was to fire this converted little SKS. Granted, I didn’t really give it the 10,000 round stress test, but I was at least able to function test it to my personal satisfaction. Given more time, it would be fun to toss an optic on it and stretch its legs a little bit. If you have the chance to try one of these, don’t miss it. Sergei Simonov has been rolling over in his grave since at least the 90’s, so there’s probably no harm done.