THE HOTTEST CASHIER AT DOLLAR TREE

The year was 1999; RECOIL wasn’t even a glimmer in Iain’s eye, having only been in the United States for a few months. Soon, the developed world would come crashing down, as computers across the globe would cause rolling blackouts due to a simple date error: Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking about Y2K.

OK, we know this article isn’t carved onto a cave wall, and that nothing much of substance happened at the turn of the millennium sans a few unplanned pregnancies. However, this article is a little bit about that, because that was also the last calendar year the SKS could be considered a pragmatic or practical choice for offensive use (in the United States at least; sorry, Canada).

Though there are variations and models from nearly a dozen separate nations, your standard fare SKS was a semiautomatic, 7.62x39mm, 20-inch barreled affair that fed from an internal 10-round magazine. Loading and reloading took place with stripper clips. Many were imported with folding bayonets