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I'd go with the SKS. General Simonov designed his rifle for the Eastern Front battle conditions the Red Army endured in World War II. It's klunky, sure. I don't find it at all clumsy, and my dad hammered "Count your rounds when you are shooting!" into me from the time he let me have my first BB gun to the point it is second nature. (I don't know whether he had that hammered into him by Grandpa with the Winchester Model 94 that was the family rifle, or his drill sergeant when he joined the Army, but he took it to heart.)
Simonov knew that even though soldiers should field-strip and clean their rifles at every opportunity, sometimes you don't have the opportunity; thus, he designed the SKS to work even when filthy. That counts for a lot with me, especially in the scenario we are discussing. I keep hearing the duckspeak that the Poodle Shooter really has been improved since the Vietnam days when it earned its epithet of "the Jam-A-Matic," but my personal experience with the design on the range (other people's rifles; I won't own one) and the stories told by soldiers and Marines who are veterans of every conflict from Vietnam to Afghanistan of the M-16s and M-4s jamming when they needed them the most tell me to stay away from the AR family. I simply don't trust them.
I own two Yugo Model 59/66s, one stock and the other set up as a plinker with a scope and a bipod. I've never had either one jam. I would very much like to get a couple more when finances improve.
The bottom line is if my choices are limited to those two, I'll go with the SKS. I trust my SKS rifles to work when I need them to, and I don't trust anything built to Eugene Stoner's original direct impingement design.
Simonov knew that even though soldiers should field-strip and clean their rifles at every opportunity, sometimes you don't have the opportunity; thus, he designed the SKS to work even when filthy. That counts for a lot with me, especially in the scenario we are discussing. I keep hearing the duckspeak that the Poodle Shooter really has been improved since the Vietnam days when it earned its epithet of "the Jam-A-Matic," but my personal experience with the design on the range (other people's rifles; I won't own one) and the stories told by soldiers and Marines who are veterans of every conflict from Vietnam to Afghanistan of the M-16s and M-4s jamming when they needed them the most tell me to stay away from the AR family. I simply don't trust them.
I own two Yugo Model 59/66s, one stock and the other set up as a plinker with a scope and a bipod. I've never had either one jam. I would very much like to get a couple more when finances improve.
The bottom line is if my choices are limited to those two, I'll go with the SKS. I trust my SKS rifles to work when I need them to, and I don't trust anything built to Eugene Stoner's original direct impingement design.