not sure if this is where this goes or not, but the SKS and the AK47 are military rifles so i figured it was close enough..
we all love the SKS or the AK47, they are great rifles. they will usually function when all others stop and you cannot beat them to death with a hammer. however, the SKS and the AK47 have gotten a bad reputation as being inaccurate at any range further than 100m. the reason could be the rifle itself, especially if the barrel is worn badly. in most cases it is the ammo used.
most if not all foreign made SKS and AK47 rifles have either a .310 or a .311 bore, while the variants made in the US usually have a .308 bore. it my or may not be for this reason that most commercial ammo is loaded with undersized bullets in the .308-.309 range. in this case we will be using everyones favorite dirt cheap cartridge, the Wolf 7.62X39mm.. a lot of the cheap military Russian and China ammo have similar problems as the Wolf, but the Wolf cartridge is the one most likely to be encountered when people are shooting the SKS or AK47 so it will be the one talked about. the Wolf ammo is a cheap round that almost always goes bang, so one cannot complain in that department. however, there is a reason it is a cheap cartridge. made to sloppy tolerances, each projectile can vary wildly from .307-.309 in the same lot and box.
each projectile can also vary in its diameter. i have seen some pulled 7.62x39mm that was egg shaped and tapered. the bullet was pulled with an inertial puller so that there would be no deformation of the round. this is the most accurate way to pull bullets for checking. the lead core in a lot of pulled rounds were also not fully locked into the jacket and would actually rattle a little bit. this would give rise to inaccuracy itself as the core would move independently of the jacket and throw off the entire rotational stability of the bullet. but the real problem is that sub standard ammo has given rise to the thought process that the AK and SKS are inaccurate and are only good for close range spraying or plinking. in reality, with proper ammo the AK47 and SKS can be as accurate as a 30-30WIN. it takes a properly made projectile of the proper diameter so that the projectile is fully engaged into the rifling and not allowed to become misaligned in the barrel.
this is the reason that when accuracy problems are encountered that one should always compare the ammo to the bore of the rifle b4 blaming the rifle itself. there is no reason the 7.62x39mm cannot be a good accurate round to 300m with the proper matching of the ammo to the rifle..
another problem encountered with the 7.62x39mm is expansion.. im not sure if it was by the Geneva convention or some other convention that has limited the 7.62x39mm to ammo that will not expand (something to do with no expandable ammo in military arms). most ammo bought today, especially the military ammo and Wolf ammo, will not expand no matter what you do. you can usually fire a Wolf Hollowpoint into ballistics gel and you can almost reload the thing into another cartridge and fire it again, it is that resistant to deformation. this has limited it as a hunting cartridge and self defense round.
but this is my 2 cents on the 7.62x39mm..