My uncle hunted with an SKS for many years before he passed and took vast numbers of deer with it. I was there for a good number of them. Wound profile isn't especially dramatic but is very effective when you put it in the boiler room. Neck shots were instantly fatal like you'd figure. Bullets mushroomed well enough with light fragmentation from shoulder hits and violent fragmentation on neck shots (which were very close range shots, so duh there'll be more frag). He used soft points but I never knew what brand or weight. Blacktail deer aren't big so exits are the rule with most any centerfire rifle. Exits weren't especially dramatic. Not one deer ever survived being hit with it for long enough to worry about. Normally if he hit it it just dropped and maybe kicked it's feet around for a minute before passing on to better things. Uncle Rick was a fine hand with that gun. He was as lethal with it as I am with a 7RM and I know of 2 300lb bears that he took with it. The power is there, don't worry about that. He took shots on average at 40yrds. From shooting it myself at paper I can say that 7.62x39 is a bit of a punkin'-slinger after 200yrds.