Leaning against a clothes-strewn sewing machine is a Russian SKS, laminated stock, and folded bayonette. On the table are three boxes of Wolf ?hollow-point? (my ass, they are fmj with a pinhole) 7.62x39 ammunition.
An enabler friend of mine dropped it off yesterday, after borrowing it from a friend of his for me to play with.
I've shot about 25 rounds in the past two days.
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Heavy, ugly, short-stocked, industrial production rifle which is an absolute delight to shoot. One exception is that in these valleys the sound bounces around like an echo chamber and makes noise like a cannon. Iron sights are great. Recoil is minimal and would be less if the stock were longer.
From first shot to most recent, I am very pleased with the accuracy I achieve with this rifle...surprisingly so. Keeping in mind that I most often shoot a 12 or 20 gauge shotgun, or a .22 rifle, this is an entirely different critter for me, but virtually idiot-proof.
The guy bought it at a gun show and has about $180 in it. He had it checked out, but the gunsmith said it didn't need anything. The owner isn't interested in selling it, but let me use it "just to see" what an SKS is like.
I've seen. I love the caliber and ammunition size. The 10 round fixed magazine seems fine to me. If I were to want an auto-loading .30 caliber, I'd get one, put a fat recoil pad on the stock to lengthen it, and start looking for wilderness areas where you could shoot the blazes out of stuff with out worrying about distressing anyone else--like the desert areas perhaps.
But around here, for me, it is too much gun to carry to plink about with. I don't enjoy going to ranges with guns and where I currently live I have the option of wandering around with a gun and murdering pine cones or broken branches at my whim. I have never needed more than two shots to hit or completely miss when I've been hunting, so the auto-loading feature isn't really an asset to me.
If I were to stash a gun for defense against the world-wide-revolutionary forces of the Schmooes, this is the gun I'd get, and a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition.
But for me, and only in my opinion, as perfect as the SKS is for what it is, and as inexpensive a gun as it is for the versitility and durability that it offers, I doubt I'll ever own one. For some others who might ask me, I would recommend one without hesitation. It is just
that good.
(Edit: Schmoo reference for the young:
http://www.deniskitchen.com/thestore/bios_shmoo.html )
AND: The astonishing success of the Schmoo: http://www.deniskitchen.com/docs/new_shmoofacts.html
(By the way, I read through the entire thread before posting. This Forum has remarkable folks in it, who are generous with their knowledge and very gentle in their manners of taking exception to others' points of view. Really a privilege to participate here. Thank you.)
