Cool Guns/Rifles: Difference between revisions

'''Simonov SKS Carbine'''<br />The SKS was designed and fielded in the last days of [[World War 2]]. Firing the intermediate 7.62x39mm round (which is known for being the same caliber used by the AK-47), it was soon replaced by AK pattern weapons and ultimately forgotten in the Soviet Union. It went on to have quite a long career in the People's Republic of China, the Democratic Peoples' Republic of North Korea, the Democratic (later Socialist) Republic of Vietnam and numerous other former Soviet client states, and it is still quite a popular gun around the world today. Visually, it is very similar to the SVT-40, although not quite as pretty, a good bit lighter, and 8 inches shorter. The SKS features a fixed magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds which can be filled either by clips, or one at a time. The SKS is slightly more powerful and accurate than the AK because it features a longer barrel and better sights. Most have bayonets that fold underneath the barrel, or at least originally did; some (especially from China) had the bayonet removed prior to import. [[The Great Politics Mess Up|When the Communist Bloc fell]], all of a sudden, it was suddenly available for very cheap with crates of Soviet and Chinese ammunition (Soviet variants qualified for "Curio and Relic" status, as do Yugoslavian ones (most of which have an attachment for firing rifle grenades via blank ammo, which is mostly useless since grenades are illegal but which has spawned a popular golf ball launcher attachment), along with the ultra-rare East German<ref>Most of which are reputed to currently be in a warehouse in Croatia, of all places.</ref>, North Korean and Vietnamese versions, which bypassed some restrictions, and the fixed magazine meant that they were not at all affected under the [[American Gun Politics|Clinton Assault Weapons Ban of 1994),]] and a large number of people found that the ballistics matched up nicely with those of the .30-30 Winchester 1894 (the "poor man's deer rifle" of the previous century). Frequently susceptible to being "bubba'd" with optical sights (The rifles are accurate out to 400M, although putting scopes on them is rather pointless), "tactical" accessories (or "tacticool", as some disparagingly call them; these include jam-happy aftermarket detachable magazines) and camo paint. Now it's a favorite of both hunters, as well as mall ninjas on too low a budget for an AR-15. It is also a moderately popular choice of Home Defense weapon, being easy to use, easy to bring to bear, and firing a relatively more powerful round than handguns, shotgun pellets, and the AR-15.

'''The Double Rifle'''<br />The weapon of choice for the [[Great White Hunter]] should be, of course, the ''double rifle'' - not a specific model of a double rifle since there is no model whatsoever, the rifles of the golden age of African Hunting were mostly tailored to their user like Savile Row suits. As wealthy [[Great White Hunter|Great White Hunters]] [[Sarcasm Mode|were much fewer than Hollywood would like us to think]], the number of true large caliber double rifles is small, in the high hundreds for the entire colonial period and an area which spanned 3/4 of Africa. Some non-custom double rifles in smaller calibers also exist, but even they are rare because the demand was just never very high. The closest thing to a "common" double rifle are combination guns, which have one rifle and one shotgun barrel: typically .22 rifle and .410 bore shotgun barrels for taking small game as a survival weapon, as in the US Air Force [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M6_Aircrew_Survival_Weapon M6 Aircrew Survival Weapon].