While I have a number of more expensive rifles I shoot regularly, I always take an SKS with me and I always end up doing some plinking with it. I enjoy shooting almost any gun that works, but the SKS is special; It's just fun to shoot, and for that reason it's one of my go to rifles when I introduce a new shooter to the sport. One of my SKSs is stripped down and has been put into a light plastic stock making it a tough, reliable, inexpensive semi-auto bush gun that's decently accurate with an optic mounted. I also have a non refirb Russian that's only seen a handful of rounds through it, but it's proudly displayed on my gun rack. I also have an old 91/30, but doesn't everyone?
I think part of my fascination with the classic red rifles stem from the place I grew up in. I can still remember the sound of the Saturday afternoon testing of the air raid siren, a persistent remnant of the height of the cold war era, located a mile or so away from where I lived, and it always reignited the "when the Russians attack" conversation among the group of my friends. Any time I see a Crylic letter on one of the guns or a can of ammo, I'm reminded that at one point in time most of us believed that we would all be attacked by the USSR and would most likely die in a nuclear exchange and never see past the 1970's. I also get a strange enjoyment from opening the spam cans of old surplus ammo; the people that packed it could not have imagined where it would end up, and how many years it would sit hidden away.
Have yet to get a SVT-40 but it's just a matter of making space for it....
was fun walking around Gagetown base dressed as a spetnaz and everyone kept saluting me didn't get shot...but then again I was currently stationed there anyways for the CDF . Why walk around a CDF base as a Russian? Try doing Long 20-30km Personal Ruck Sack marches but in CDF uniform they won't leave u alone and ask too many questions
