Around 10 years ago I took a small buck with a Norico SKS. I took it in the shoulder at only 35 or so yards. The deer was trotting along and crumpled up on impact. I used the soft point hunting ammo that was available at the time and it seemed to work just fine.

As for the 10 round mag, here in Maine you are limited to a 5 round mag but what I did at the time was I carved a peice of wood to fit in the bottom of the mag of just the right size to allow 5 rounds to be loaded. To make it a " permanent" alteration I drilled a small hole in the bottom of the mag and secured the wood to the mag with a screw. It was explained to me at the time that this would sufficiently meet the legal restriction on the magazine capacity.

The SKS can be a whole lot of fun to shoot and is a great truck gun. I' m actually thinking about picking up another one.