The Samozaryadnyi Karabin Simonova, aka SKS, is a semi-automatic carbine firing the 7.62x39mm. cartridge. Here are the specifications:

Weight, unloaded: 8 lb. 8 oz.
Overall length: 40.1"
Barrel: 20.5", 4 groove, right-hand twist
Capacity: 10 rounds in fixed box magazine
Muzzle velocity: 2400 feet per second
Effective range: 400 yards

The SKS action is gas-operated, with the cylinder mounted on top of the barrel. Locking is by tilting block. Manual safety operated by trigger finger.

(All figures for Soviet model in original military configurations, using Soviet military-spec ammunition.)

What The SKS Isn't:

It isn't an assault rifle, either by the correct technical definition or the corrupt and misleading one set down in Federal law.

It isn't "an AK-47 type rifle" or "similar to the AK-47." (Or, as one widely-circulated newspaper story grotesquely claimed, "based on the AK-47" - a neat trick if it were true, since the SKS was in existence years before the AK-47 was designed!) As you know by now if you've been reading the preceding pages, the only things it has in common with the AK-47 is that they both were designed by Russians and they use the same ammunition.

It isn't a weapon of great or "devastating" power. The 7.62x39mm. round is ballistically similar to the well-known American .30-30, which most experts consider the lightest round acceptable for deer hunting. It is much less powerful than the M-16, or the typical full-power military or sporting rifle. It is true that it will penetrate the typical police protective vest. So will any reasonably effective defensive or sporting firearm, including a muzzle-loading Kentucky rifle.

All these errors, however, have been repeated over and over, in the news media and in the publications and statements of various individuals and organizations, particularly anti-gun activists but also such supposed authority figures as police chiefs. (Who quite often know very little about firearms except for those used by their departments - if that - and who love to exaggerate the dangers their men face.)

Not all the misinformation comes from people with axes to grind. A lot of it originates with careless or irresponsible journalists. If an SKS figures in a crime somewhere in town, even if the cops don't call it an "assault rifle" it's odds-on the reporter will.

Absolutely nothing, some will tell you, except fighting wars and murdering people. Some of them will say it's not even much good for the war part.

This is, to put it as politely as possible, a load of ballocks. The SKS carbine has several perfectly legitimate civilian uses, as we've seen on the preceding page. However, it is better suited for some things than others, and it might be worthwhile to run down a basic list:

Hunting: This is the obvious application, and probably the main reason people in most parts of the country acquire SKSs. (Though probably not everybody who buys a "huntin' rifle" ever actually takes it hunting; armchair sportsmen are almost as common as armchair travelers.)

The Simonov makes quite a good hunting rifle for small to medium-size game. As noted above, its performance is ballistically similar to that of the .30-30, long regarded as the definitive American "deer rifle." Its relatively short range is no handicap in the brushy environments where white-tails like to hang out - in fact it could be considered a safety factor - and it can deliver followup shots on a running target much faster than a Winchester or Marlin carbine. Ammunition is very cheap, allowing the hunter to practice and improve his marksmanship, resulting in more humane kills.

It is not, however, an adequate rifle for big game; shooting an elk or moose with a 7.62x39 would be irresponsibly cruel, and trying conclusions with a big bear would be hazardous to your own health. Even the small Eastern black bear needs something with more power.

(While this may be an upsetting subject for some, it is worth noting that the SKS is also an excellent weapon for dealing with packs of feral dogs, which are a serious problem in some areas, killing both wild and domestic animals and spreading disease.)

Target Shooting: For traditional precision shooting of the kind you see in the Olympics, the SKS is laughable. Even fitted with a scope - which present technical problems due to the design of the action - it is simply not capable of the kind of fine accuracy required in regular target competition.

For less formal target shooting - "plinking" at ad hoc targets, or spending an afternoon at a club or public range making holes in paper or assaulting metal silhouettes - the Simonov can be a lot of fun. With its light recoil, even a person of small stature can shoot it for several hours without getting a bruised shoulder, while its mild report doesn't assail the ears. Ammunition is cheap, especially if bought in quantity from some of the online suppliers. And most SKSs - especially the Russians and the Yugos - are accurate enough for this sort of casual shooting.

Home Protection And Self-Defense: Bad idea, for most people. Someone living out in the country, away from other homes - a farmer or rancher, say - might find an SKS useful for chasing away intruders, though he'd better be sure of his legal grounds.

In urban or suburban areas, though, it's not a good choice. No rifle is. For one very big thing, any rifle bigger than a .22 is very likely to go right through the shootee and out through the wall behind him, to hit somebody in the next house or apartment - or a couple of blocks down the street. For another, firing a military-caliber rifle inside an enclosed room is a good way to spend the rest of your life saying, "WHAT?"

For home protection and self-defense, a shotgun is a far better choice, or a medium-to-large-caliber pistol if you're willing to put in the time and money to learn to shoot it. If somebody's too far away to hit him with a pistol or a shotgun, you're going to play hell making self-defense stick in court anyway.

Survival Scenarios: Hey, it's not just the foil-hat paranoids who worry about things going totally to hell so that ordinary people need guns. We live in what the ancient Chinese would call interesting times. Even reasonable people, considering some of the things going on in the world - and in this country - may find themselves picturing what survivalists call "SHTF" (Feces Hits The Fan) situations.

As Norman Mailer has written: "Paranoia and common sense come together as the world goes insane."

At a less extreme level, people in some urban areas may worry about outbreaks of mass violence. The pictures of the Korean shopkeepers during the Los Angeles riots, resolutely defending their turf with personal firearms, made an impression on a lot of Americans. And then too one might think in terms of some natural disaster such as an earthquake or hurricane - depending on where one lives - causing a temporary breakdown in law and order.

(Sometimes, it must be admitted, the paranoia gets distinctly weird. SKS sales, and prices, soared in the US during the last part of 1999, spurred by widespread fears of an imagined Y2K catastrophe.)

This isn't the appropriate place to comment on any of these scenarios, or the people who have such concerns. For present purposes, enough to say - speaking hypothetically - that a good reliable semi-automatic carbine, for which ammunition is widely available, would no doubt be an excellent choice in a survival situation.

And that is quite as far as we are going to go in that direction, if you please - except to point out that in a free society people do have the right to form their own opinions, and to make whatever preparations they see fit on the basis of those opinions, as long as they aren't harming anyone else.

Firearm Or Militaria Collecting: You might be surprised how many SKSs are bought by collectors, some of whom refuse even to fire them but hang them on the wall or store them in gun safes to preserve their condition. "Milsurp" collecting is a popular hobby nowadays; and in fact there are SKS devotees who collect nothing else, and love nothing so much as acquiring some obscure variant. For most of the above purposes, the SKS can be considerably improved by removing the bayonet and making other modifications, but if you mention anything like that around these people, they will rend their garments and call you "Bubba" and other things. Many, many other things.

(It must be pointed out, though, that modifying a military SKS in any way is a legally risky business, thanks to the complicated and sometimes contradictory Federal regulations. Anyone doing this should make sure of the rules first.)

And one can see their point. The SKS does have a lot of history behind it; as a collector's item it makes just as much sense as a duelling pistol, or a stamp.

And now you know something about the SKS; and now, too, you know something about why people own it. We're not all of us racist bullies or religious whackos or you-talking-to-me? psychos - any more than everyone who owns a lighter and a gasoline can is a pyromaniac - and very few of us are dope dealers or members of street gangs. The overwhelming majority of SKS owners are reasonably responsible citizens; the punks and the loonies are no more numerous than you'd expect in a group of two to four million people.

We're not all of us right-wingers, either, no matter what you may have heard. We're not all of us Republicans or even conservatives. Some of us swing very definitely the other way.

And some of us just want to be left the hell alone.