Posted by zog
on October 26, 2009, 9:47 am, in reply to "Re: cheap stuff"
mil surplus webgear/packs/frames, etc is also a pretty decent way to go with camping stuff. Old army jazz is heavier than ultra lightweight expensive go climb the Matterhorn stuff, but loads cheaper and BIG fun poking through boxes of old gear doing mix and match to build your hiking rig or bugout bag or what have you. Gunshows and the larger firearms stores are good places to start looking, or hit the yellow pages and find the closest army navy surplus store to you and look at their stuff. I'll say it again, just big whopper fun if you are into this sort of stuff, especially on a restrained budget. And if you go in with the thought you will build your hiking rig around your rifle, you can further fine tune the mixing and maching there, and get bandoleers, etc that fit for purpose.
They typically have both US and a ton of even cheaper old warsaw pact and chinese stuff for sale. When the soviet union fell, literally boatloads of surplus stuff made its way to the states, along with cheaper rifles and parts. The SKS rifles were incredibly cheap back then, I remember seeing new unissued ones for under a hundred bucks, must have been umpteen thousands "fell off the back of the truck" in all the old warsaw pact nations and russia then. Those are decent rifles, just need stock extenders/buttpads for the most part to fit normal sized adults better. Just remember if you (anyone you) ever get one, the first site setting on the rear ramp is a "general combat" setting of 300 meters, it is the next click down that resets it to 100 meters (this would be the rear site sitting the closest it can get to the barrel, for the closest shots, the higher the rear site setting is for farther and farther away shots, general rule of thumb there), which is much more useful of a setting for at least most east coast deer and hog hunting.
The 7.62 x 39mm warsaw pact round, that the SKS and AK use, is equivalent ballistically to the 30-30, more or less. The various bolt action mosin-nagants, both the really long barreled rifles and much shorter barreled carbines use the 7.62 x 54 R cartridge, which is loads more powerful and roughly equivalent to US 30-06 in power and range, and can therefore be used for longer range shooting and heavier game, like elk, etc, although still good for just whitetails and small bears and hogs, etc.
Hunting rounds (for both calibers) are not cheap (but you won't need that many either really), milsurplus FMJ for target practice and defense used to be cheap, now they are medium priced when you can find them, although supplies dried up fast earlier this year, not sure about now, haven't been to a show for a long time.
Also, because the SKS doesn't have a pistol grip or detachable magazine like the AK,(although there are a ton of aftermarket accessories you can get to make it so) it isn't as "scary, OMG, ASSAULT RIFLE" looking and slides through some places "ban" lists easier. Same exact round as the AK, just normal rifle looking and much less than half price to buy on the market.
OK, some handy links, these are my top three recommendations for *cheap and plenty good enough* generic rifles, just pick which action you are the most comfortable with, the ammo costs for new hunting stuff are about a wash if you shop around
semi-automatic fire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sks
bolt action
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosin%E2%80%93Nagant
leveraction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-30_Winchester
This last link above is the US caliber 30-30, mostly lever action, various brands, the two most common are winchester wih top eject, and marlin, with side eject. Just guessing, but any lever gun like this might be the LAST one to ever be 'banned' in the US, it's like 57 chevys and baseball, just too much history and status. I know I wouldn't hesitate taking either of the three if I had to go off in the wilderness in any place outside of alaska or a few of the western states, where you really would need a much heavier caliber rifle, like a .300 winmag, a .375 H&H mag, or like I mentioned in a previous article, a lever in 45-70. Big old angry moosekies and brown bears...you can't tote a "too big of" rifle for an emergency situation there. Anything else, the above three rifles are plenty good enough.
Acceptable variant if you want the same ammo for both pistol and rifle, the "cowboy rig", a lever gun in .44 mag, plus a revolver in the same caliber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Magnum
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