Adrian Van Dyk Collection/Stuart Mowbray photos. Between 1970 and 1972, I deployed on ... researchers have at last proven which is the real Russian SKS versus one of the design’s many ...

Watch this segment of American Rifleman TV's "I Have This Old Gun" to learn more about the history and significance of the Russian SKS-45 carbine from the Cold War era.

The SKS was the first rifle to replace the Soviet Union’s bolt-action Mosin-Nagant of Imperial Russian vintage. It was about time too—the Mosin-Nagant had served the Tsar’s troops since 1891.

The SKS was the first rifle to replace the Soviet Union’s bolt-action Mosin-Nagant of Imperial Russian vintage. It was about time too—the Mosin-Nagant had served the Tsar’s troops since 1891.

To create one of his Russian SKS rifle sculptures, Gronquist plates the gun's barrel and magazine clip with 18-karat gold, a process usually farmed out to an industrial metal shop.

The SKS typically has a wooden stock and a non-detachable magazine with a capacity of 10 rounds of 7.62-millimeter caliber, the same caliber ammunition used in the AK-47s that eventually replaced ...