My uncle was a Vietnam vet that collected guns. Because of his experience there he had an extreme distaste for the AR-15 platform. I tried once 20 some years ago to tell him things are different but he was having none of it.
But he spoke highly of the AK-47 and SKS. He felt compelled to buy any reasonably priced Winchester 1887 or SKS he saw at a gun show. Don't know why he wasn't into collecting the AK pattern guns, he was only really ino SKSs, 30-30 lever guns and 1911s. So he has maybe a dozen SKSs.
There's a photo of me from the late 80s when I was like 9 holding an SKS. I had "tricked" him into letting me hold one by asking if it was heavy.
He wasn't much of a shooter though so I never really shot one until I was in my mid 20s. I wonder if I can scrounge that up somewhere.