SKS for deer

Status
Not open for further replies.
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
 
nowarningshot said:
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

Very well said.... and to add, you are comparing two very different killing mechanisms between rifles and bows.... not apples to apples at all....
 
I curious if the folks that find a SKS so abhorrent if you have ever actually used one in the context of hunting? Is your objection anecdotal, philosophical or something else?
Personally and admittedly anecdotally the ones I have hunted with always found their mark within a hundred yards with single shots and resulted in immediate and ethical kills. Are there better hunting guns/calibers? Of course there are but a SKS with appropriate ammo is more than adequate tool within its appreciated limitations and sometimes its just the tool I prefer to use on any given day.
 
nowarningshot said:
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

Actually the crossbow / bow comparison does seem valid; at least for the sake of debate. It takes considerably more skill and practice to be proficient with a bow; and one will still not likely ever match the capablities of a crossbow .
SKS's are a tad hard to champion...lots of knuckleheads out there that bought them to thrash hard with a case of surplus. But they will put meat on the table...I've done it a few times. Seemed to be a good enough gun as long as you realize the limitations.
 
nowarningshot said:
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

Superbrad said:
Very well said.... and to add, you are comparing two very different killing mechanisms between rifles and bows.... not apples to apples at all....
Click to expand...



How is it not a fair comparison for the sake of the argument???

The SKS takes more skill practice and precision to kill a deer with than lets say a 300 win mag topped with a 4x12 leupold does. But an ethical kill can still be accomplished given the amount of practice put in, waiting for the right shot, distance, timing etc...

Just like a ethical kill with a compound bow can be accomplished but requires more practice , skill, waiting for the right shot distance etc... than with a crossbow topped with a 4 power scope...

It is an apples to apples comparison..... Unless your argument is that a SKS is not capable of killing a deer.
 
The problem (and I think it is very evident here on cgn) is that most people actually have less skill and precision than they think they have....

When it comes to an sks I would put this forward.... nobody who is truly serious about hunting or being a hunter would suggest that the sks is a "gun of choice".... there are many reasons for that.... if you are unwilling to invest a few hundred bucks for something better (even an axxis)... in my opinion you dont take it seriously enough...

There are other arguments to present, but at the end of the day if you want to be a rifle hunter buy a hunting rifle....

Just to tell you my main issue with sks for hunting (and I have others)... most people cant tell the difference between 100 and 150 or even 75 in the woods....

Why not carry a tool that can handle all of these with a single point of aim?...
 
Superbrad said:
The problem (and I think it is very evident here on cgn) is that most people actually have less skill and precision than they think they have....

When it comes to an sks I would put this forward.... nobody who is truly serious about hunting or being a hunter would suggest that the sks is a "gun of choice".... there are many reasons for that.... if you are unwilling to invest a few hundred bucks for something better (even an axxis)... in my opinion you dont take it seriously enough...

There are other arguments to present, but at the end of the day if you want to be a rifle hunter buy a hunting rifle....

Just to tell you my main issue with sks for hunting (and I have others)... most people cant tell the difference between 100 and 150 or even 75 in the woods....

Why not carry a tool that can handle all of these with a single point of aim?...
Click to expand...

Well put, i was struggling to come up with something to reply without coming off as a AH. Think you pretty much nailed what i would have tried to say.....point for point.

Guess one other point not made above....People buy these too have fun....go ahead and do that. But if you spent your firearms budget on a fun ...toy.....dont try and kid yourself into thinking its the right tool for the job....Why would one choose to use something like a SKS if you have another center fire rifle for taking deer? If you only have money for one rifle and bought a SKS....no Deer for you ...one year.
 
I'm trying to figure out why the anti SKS crowd think an SKS is unable to kill a deer? Lots less powerful cartridges than the 7.62x39 have been used millions of times to cleanly take deer. It's not that difficult to hit a 8" circle at 150 yards with an SKS either.
 
Gatehouse said:
I'm trying to figure out why the anti SKS crowd think an SKS is unable to kill a deer? Lots less powerful cartridges than the 7.62x39 have been used millions of times to cleanly take deer. It's not that difficult to hit a 8" circle at 150 yards with an SKS either.
Click to expand...

From a bench... maybe
In a hunting situation... I doubt it.
There are better choices. (and there's your answer :) )
 
Guys Guys Guys!!!!!

I have an SKS, didn't buy ammo at all.

It has a bayonet that I can use when I jump from my stand and at the top of my lungs yell Aloha Snackbar!!! , as I plunge it into my venison.

Biggest plus to this, I have totally eliminated the corrosive vs non-corrosive ammo argument, cosmoline isn't an issue either!

So my use of MY SKS is irrelevant to the comparison at hand, but it is effective!
 
That's funny. Surplus rifles have always been used for hunting, despite there "being something better" available. And, they've put literally tonnes of meat on the ground.

This summer I watched numerous brand new shooters hit a gong at 100 yards with both scoped and iron sighted SKS rifles. Sometimes they planted both elbows on the table while standing, sometimes they did it from offhand. Often they missed by an inch or 2 with a few shots, but hit several others.

They only usually got 10 shots, but most connected on at least a few. Brand new, never shot before that day shooters.

Imagine what a hunter that does a bit of practice can accomplish?

From a bench, I put 10 rounds from a scoped SKS into an under than 6" circle at 200 yards. This was years back when the internet was young and the same topic came up. Everyone said the SKS was too inaccurate for hunting. I had bought a case of 5 from Lever Arms for $75 each (pre-internet) and had given some away and played around with some with mostly cases of crappy ammo. I tended to agree that the SKS had no place in hunting, but rather than spout off about something without trying it, I stuck a scope on one SKS and made some decent ammo for it.

I never bothered hunting with the SKS, but at least I knew that from a good rest I could kill a deer with it at 200 yards.

With a factory SKS, it's incumbent on the hunter to get some good hunting ammo, see what the rifle is doing from a bench, adjust sights accordingly, practice from field positions until they are confident and see what range they are confident at, and go from there- just like what should be done with every other hunting rifle in existence.
 
I really can't believe that there are still guys here trying to preach to us all that an sks is not , or can't be a hunting tool....... I have 4 words for you...... get off the pot..... or yer high horses, which ever fits yer fancy LOL
let's not be weetodds about this :D
you all should know how to read energy at target on the ballistic charts so lets put this whole thing to bed shall we?
 
Advantages of 7.62x39... You don't have to go too far to get your kill. Non of this "did you see that? A deer at 400 yards... Oh. That means I have to walk that far and drag the f*ucker all the way back".
 
One other bonus is the non cleaning of the SKS :)

I don't recommend this, but I chose one of those 5 SKS rifles to "torture test" it. I put a whole 1500 round case through it without cleaning, and had virtually no issues. :)
 
I have taken 6 deer with an SKS. Scoped and iron sights. My wife's first deer dropped to a scoped SKS with Federal Blue Box Power Points from 130 yds. Boiler room shot, it went 30yds. However, she was dragging (yes, dragging) the rifle through the bush after a short 2 hour ramble. LOL! Now she carries a savage 11 in .243.
And, gentlemen, you CAN make it MORE accurate. I am working one over now hoping to make it lighter and a better shooter.
 
FLYBYU44 said:
I mostly hunt paper, but in the fall I get my upland gamebird and usually shoot a few chickens for a good meal. This year I think I want to get a whitetail tag and try my hand at that. Thinking of using my SKS as I'm pretty confident with it to 100 yards. Was wondering if anyone else has used a SKS to hunt whitetail with? How did it work? Good or bad? Was also wondering what a good soft point hunting round would be? I've mostly just seen Privi for softpoints.
Click to expand...

If it's all you have and you can get decent ammo for it then fill your boots. Every extra hunter in the field only helps us.
 
nowarningshot said:
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

The 7.62x39 is a near twin to the 30-30 ballistics so it is quite capable of taking deer at the same ranges as the 30-30. If you limit yourself to 150 yds or less, you should be fine using a soft point bullet of course. Try a couple different brands and go with the best grouping one. They do make a heavier soft point, 154gr. in some, that might be good too. Practice and be confident.
 
nowarningshot said:
Making a comparison between a crossbow/bow and SKS/hunting rifle is not at all the same. Most archery hunters sit in stands, spend hours if not days waiting for the ethical close range shot and have multiple stories of huge animals within easy rifle range that are passed due to the limitations of stick n twine.

What is the ethical distance for a Whitetail for the 7.62x39, i would doubt that range is any further than a crossbow. The crossbow would also be more ethical at the same distance, more lethality and accuracy.

This is not the first thread talking about the SKS and 7.62x39 for hunting, not the second either. My take, you bought a range toy to shoot thousands of rounds of cheap surplus. That was the purpose...period. It is not a hunting rifle or round. You made your choice and bought the toy. Ethically taking game animals is not for toys. Want to hunt, buy a hunting rifle.
Click to expand...

You're talking out of your hole.

The x39 has plenty of power to properly anchor deer or moose at reasonable distances. A good friend of mine has a titanic set of moose antlers from the bull that he shot with his Ruger M77 in 7.62x39. Does the platform somehow determine the propriety of a round for hunting? Is the x39 in the Ruger bolt action somehow superior to the x39 in the SKS? Or is it the semi auto platform that offends your sense of decency? Would a Ruger Mini 30 be less offensive? Every platform has it's limitations, but to pillory someone for using a round or platform that you feel is improper is the height of conceit and self importance. Are there better choices than the SKS for deer hunting? I would say yes, but the SKS is far from the worst choice and as it is perfectly adequate given a set of parameters, why should we discourage it's ethical and legally permissible use?
 
Guess what children?

I bought an SKS specifically to take my deer this year, some Hornady SST ammo, and I'm good to go.

Do I give sh¡t what some people think? Hell no.

Did I do some research to find that people have no trouble taking a deer within a hundred yards with an SKS? Of course.

Seriously though, it's as if someone picked up a 22 to harvest a deer by the way some have been spewing out the mouth er hand.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom