SKS.

This is coolbert:

I am reading this article about the SKS carbine. A weapon that has become very popular with American shooters as of late.

Is a weapon referred to as a "ranch rifle". A weapon, semi-automatic, that the average-everyday rancher can carry with him when he does his chores [hanging in the gun rack at the back of the pick-up truck of course]. Ranchers living in the American west can carry this rifle and know they have a reliable weapon, firing a good caliber round, with little if any real maintenance required. Can be used on varmits such as coyote. Animals that threaten the herds of the ranchers.

The SKS, called a carbine, but actually more of a rifle, is a Soviet designed rifle from the 1940's. Was the predecessor to the AK-47. Has a ten round magazine, fires the 7.62 X 39 mm round also used in the AK. Has been mass produced in prodigious numbers by communist countries all over the world in a variety of forms and qualities. Ammunition is very cheap, even amazingly cheap. The world gun market is evidently flooded by enormous quantities of this rifle, both the weapon and appropriate ammo being available at low cost.

American owners of the SKS have expressed some concern that this weapon just does not have the degree of accuracy that they desire. An experienced marksman, firing the SKS in a reasonable manner, can fully expect to have a shot pattern of about four to five inches across at 100 yards. An even more skilled rifleman can expect even a more accurate shot pattern, but that would be from the hands of a skilled rifleman taking his time and concentrating on accuracy.

With regard to accuracy, the SKS designer and manufacturers did NOT INTEND to make the SKS a weapon that WOULD HAVE a high degree of accuracy. They wanted a weapon that had ADEQUATE ACCURACY. Accuracy to the desired degree for a BATTLEFIELD weapon. We are NOT talking here about a sniper rifle with a high degree of accuracy over very long ranges. We are talking here about a weapon that is carried by the common soldier. ADEQUATE is the operable word.

Adequate in this manner:

That four to five inch shot pattern at a range of 100 yards would be eight to ten inches at 200 yards [meters].

Viewed from the front, a fit young man has a body width of about 12 inches.

Most gun fights on the modern battlefield occur at ranges of 200 meters [yards] or less.

Ergo, an average rifleman, firing the SKS in a reasonable manner, is able to adequately engage targets as found on the modern battlefield.

And remember, a squad of infantry wielding SKS's exist primarily to support the main firepower as found in the modern infantry squad, a light automatic weapon, such as the communist RPK. The RPK, firing the same round as the SKS, is a light machinegun, with bipod and thirty round magazine. The base of fire for modern infantry squads in armies all over the world is founded upon such weapons as the RPK.




Again, with a rifle such as the SKS, ADEQUATE is the operable word.

coolbert.