Wow MrB. That is quite a good read, and some great recomendations.

But...

I have one STRONG caution.

You mention the SKS with a 10-round magazine. Let me just say that a LOT of the most common SKSs on the market now are from Yugoslavia -- that is what I own. Those have the bayonet and grenade-launcher attached. These are big "no-no's" from a legal standpoint. This SKS is legal because is is a "curio & relic." But, if you modify the rifle, it looses its "C&R" status, and you can get in legal trouble for the "evil" features.

So, the point here is that if you have an SKS, if you change the furniture or change the magazine, you had BETTER remove the bayonet and launcher. The barrel will still be threaded, so you had also better add a muzzle brake and WELD it to the barrel, lest you find yourself in a cell with Bubba.

Note that the SKSs from other countries most likely will not have these features, but the Yugoslavian ones do.

As a side rant, these rules are stupid. If a guy is pointing a rifle at me, would I feel better knowing that he can't stab me with a bayonet as well as shoot me? Probably not. That law makes no sense. A grenade launcher is completely useless since it is impossible to get live grenades for the thing (at least for me). So that part of the law also is really useless. I got the Yugo SKS simply because of it's unbeatable price - $200 for a rifle that had never even been fired.

Also, I have not tried (for the legal reasons), but I hear that detachable magazines are very bad for the reliability of the SKS. So those are not recommended. As far ashunting, I hear that if you put a Lego 2x3 brick in the bottom of the mag, that limits you to five rounds. Problem solved for about $0.05.