Hmmmm...[cue Cogitation soundtrack]
Hokay, the first thing I thought of was the Ishapore Enfield. It's only drawback is the old-school tangent sight, as opposed to a #4's peep. Otherwise, all it's details have been listed by other folks, so I'll leave it at that. One point: Enfields of all stripes generally reload faster with stripper clips than they do by switching mags. In service, the mags stayed in place except during cleaning and maintenance, and extras weren't issued.
The SKS is insufficeint to the task. We're talking Alaska, right? Cold, muddy, big critters, civilization streched out over large distances, infrastructure regularly savaged by typical weather, etc. I wouldn't want to depend on a semi-auto, and the 7.62 x 39 lacks oomph and bullet weight.
Another offbeat suggestion not yet considered is the MAS M-36 bolt-gun in a .308 conversion. These are super-handy lightweight carbines available in brand-new condition for $100-ish, and bonuses include loading w/ strippers, bent-over bolt handle, excellent peepsight, beefy construction, detachable magazine floorplate, high mag capacity, (Ten, I think.) ammo availability, and they come stock with a 16"-long cruciform spike bayonet that reverses into a tube under the muzzle for storage. The bolt is made up of all of four parts, and can be stripped without tools. A screwdriver can handle the entire rest of the rifle for detail stripping. The rear-locking bolt
looks a little funny, but works fast enough, and it's a huge diameter for a rifle bolt which does much to dispel Enfield-style bolt compression headspace issues.
The only dis-advantages are that it's... well... French. Those wacky Frenchies don't put safeties on their bolt-guns for some reason, and the ATF required the addition of a trigger-block safety in order to qualify them for importing, so the safety arrangement is a little funky, but they work. These guns also have a tendency to have a rather short length-of-pull, but in Alaska I would imagine heavy clothing is required a lot of the time, so this may be a moot point.
These guns are the last military bolt-action rifle developed before the universal adoption of semi-auto actions, which qualifies them as perhaps the most-refined design of all. They're also a procurement-board-tested-to-death military surplus gun in what amounts to un-issued condition (They certainly never saw any combat.
) for all of about $100, a hard price to argue with. Mine shoots fine, right to POI, and recoil seems quite manage-able, unlike some of the other milsurp carbines available. I think the M-36 merits a closer look if you haven't before.
