Mr. Rawles,  
Once again thank you for your work on SurvivalBlog, may God richly bless you. I read Pat's review of the AK-47 and at the end the SKS was mentioned. I thought I would just add my 2 cents worth on the SKS.  I have had several people come to me who are on a very tight budget and cannot afford an AR, FN SCAR, or any of the other pricey weapons available.  If you are on a tight budget, I highly recommend the SKS.   I have several SKSes and AK-47s, along with the FN-FAL, CETME, and a couple of Colt AR-1s5.  I had talked with several guys about the SKS and decided it was worth a look, so I bought one.  I bought my first Yugoslavian-made SKS back in the 1990s. The total price was just under $200.  I bought 1,000 rounds and headed to the range.  I was presently surprised.  The gun is heavier than the AK-47 which eliminates almost all the recoil.  My son and I burned through all that ammo and we were more tired from holding the gun then from recoil fatigue. The next day I went back and bought another SKS, and so did my son.  

Next we changed to the Tapco SKS T6 Collapsible Stock and bought the Tapco 30 round magazines.  This is a nice piece of furniture for this weapon.  As you know, putting a lot of rounds threw this gun really heats up the forearm, the synthetic stock does an excellent job of protecting your hand from the heat.  And it helped lighten the gun several ounces.  We have tried several other brands of magazines, none have worked as well as the Tapco I highly recommend them.  The stock can be had for about $70 to $80 and the magazines run from $16 to $20 apiece.  All of our SKSes have been converted to magazines. but don't expect to change these magazines as rapidly as an AK or AR.  The protruding "nose" on the magazine slows this down.  I don't recommend the adapted metal magazines because you have to pull the release to get the magazines in.  The Tapco's come with a tapered catch on the magazine so you can pop it in with one hand.