I used to have a Ruger Mini-30 that shot the same as hornetguy's SKS (7.62X39mm). it was scoped and really accurate. I bought some surplus hard-ball ammo for it: 1000 rds for $75.00. Really fun and cheap to shoot. I never got the chance, but you can even hunt with that cartridge (not the hard-ball though). Hornetguy, you probably have some hunting rounds for your SKS. They say it has the BC of about the 30-30 Win. I thought it would have more due to the spire point bullets.
Yes, I used soft point stuff when I hunted hogs with mine. I used Federal Premium, 123 gr, I think. It worked, but not real decisively. You can now buy 154gr soft points, which I believe would be a much better choice for hogs.
I imagine the 123gr round would work well on deer and other medium sized game.
It is very close to 30-30 performance... maybe 100-150 fps slower than the 150 gr 30-30 load. Between the 150gr 30-30's and the 154gr 7.62's, I don't think you'd see much, if any, difference in performance on game.
It's a nifty cartridge. I imagine that Mini 14 was a good shooter. I like the feel of them a lot... the price just makes me
I had a stainless one in .223 for a short time, but unfortunately it wasn't terribly accurate. I've heard that Ruger has dramatically improved accuracy in those rifles. I think it was a barrel issue, IIRC.