Some pretty good advice here. I like Mini 14/Mini 30s, YMMV - the 14 shoots the .223 (same as the AR) the Mini 30 shoots the Russian short round, same as the AK/SKS.
If you're really interested in an AK, the folks @ Arsenal are worth your time. Not the cheapest but a good product. I'd stay away from anything imported via Century Arms - way too many bad reports keep popping up.
The SKS was adopted before the AK hit the scene in Rooshia, but not by much. The Russians adopted the AK 47 for their front line combat troops and gave the SKS guns to cops, 'frontier hunters' and so on. Russia soon gave the equipment to make the SKS guns away to allies like Yugoslavia, China, etc...the Russian SKS is worth looking for over some of the others - the Chinese models are 'rode hard and put up wet', the Yugos didn't have access to chrome and their barrels wear out/wore out sooner. For my purposes the
SKS was a nicer hunting rifle - good for deer-sized game. I had a clean Yugo SKS I just sold off a few weeks ago. I'll try to wave and point around here when I have stuff to sell, the stuff I sold went so fast I didn't get to use all my marketing whammy. Which probably means I didn't price it high enough. But here's a tip for you kids - buy guns cheap when gun loving Republicans are in charge, sell guns when Democrats are making noises about taking away your guns. I picked up some tidy profit following that plan, and I'm not done yet.
Here's a place that sells a lot of these kinds of guns, should give you a chance to price stuff before you hit a gun show/gun store. I've bought guns from them before and was happy w/their service & product.
http://www.atlanticfirearms.com/