This may piss off some of you, but here's my SKS story.
Back in the late 80s I went to college in New Haven. (Not Yale). NH was having a big problem with with drug violence. Crack was killing the city.
So they decided to have a gun "buyback". They paid $50 for a rifle or shotgun. $100 for a handgun. And $200!!!! for an "assault weapon".
After it was announced, but before it happened, I was wandering around Hoffman's Guns in Newington and saw crates of SKS rifles. If you bought a whole crate (either 10 or 20 guns, I can't remember) the price was $80 each.
I had an idea.
I called the NH PD and asked if the SKS was considered to be an assault weapon. I eventually got my answer from a friend who was a new patrolman in NH. Yes.
So I bought 20 rifles for $1600 and turned them in for $4000. The cops knew what I was doing, but there wasn't really much they could do. It was no questions asked, etc.
I took my $2400 and bought a Smith and Wesson 6906, a good belt and a Mitch Rosen holster for it as well as a Seecamp 32 and a pocket holster, from Chris at Chris' gun shop in New Haven. The rest of the money went towards beer and food. ha.
Back then, the supply of SKS seemed bottomless.
But then again, I've also got a few Mosins that I bought 20+ years ago for like $60. Ha. I kept them because they are neat. I never liked the SKS.