Picked up an interesting item from the Gun Show

[2k05gt]

I have been searching for a nice Soviet or a Yugo SKS for a while but I ran across an interesting Cosmoline treasure at the Gun show today.

I know Chinese SKS (ho hum Yawn)... But a 1956 Sino-Soviet SKS ?
or to the Chinese "Type 56 Rifle" to the world a Samozariadnyia Karabina Simonova (SKS) Rifle

HISTORY
In 1956, when Russia ended production of the SKS at the Tula Arsenal, they shipped the tooling, spare parts and specification to China along with technical advisers, who helped set up the manufacturing and training of the Chinese workers at Jianshe Arsenal (aka factory 26).

China felt the SKS had a role to play alongside of the AK47. In battle, it didn't use as much ammo, it was faster to charge 10 rounds and it could provide cover fire while the AK 30 round mags were being reloaded. The SKS having a longer barrel was more likely to hit the target than the shorter barrel AK.

China adopted both the SKS and the AK47 in 1956.

JIANSHE ARSENAL. Aka factory 26.
China did not have a long history of firearms manufacturing. The oldest factory was Jianshe and it was built in 1889 during the Imperial Dynasty in the city of Chongqing.

Note location of serial number in regards to the factory stamping /26\ Jianshe Arsenal, This is a Sino-Soviet and was only made in the first half of 1956.



Butt Stock Markings


Notice the Star Stamp.. again signifies that it's an Original Sino-Soviet.


Also note the mark on the sight, the Cyrillic letter n



The Stock is a bit rough but you know those North Vietcong were hard on their firearms..



So after removing a ton of Cosmoline and cleaning the stock with wood conditioner and some tung oil I lugged it out to the range to give it a try..

[MarcSpaz]

Thanks for meeting me out at the range today brother. Those are some kick butt rifles you had with you. I really enjoyed getting a chance to fire them.

[allingeneral]

I had an SKS at one time. Best I could figure, it was Chinese and was made in the early 70's. It took a lot of digging to figure out what all the markings and serial numbers meant.

I guess this one that you picked up is fairly rare?

[OakRidgeStars]

I had an SKS at one time. Best I could figure, it was Chinese and was made in the early 70's. It took a lot of digging to figure out what all the markings and serial numbers meant.

Whatever happened to that rifle?

[allingeneral]

I had an SKS at one time. Best I could figure, it was Chinese and was made in the early 70's. It took a lot of digging to figure out what all the markings and serial numbers meant.

Whatever happened to that rifle?

I think it fell out of my boat in the VA Beach area somewhere.

[OakRidgeStars]

Indeed it did.

[2k05gt]

I had an SKS at one time. Best I could figure, it was Chinese and was made in the early 70's. It took a lot of digging to figure out what all the markings and serial numbers meant.

I guess this one that you picked up is fairly rare?

Well Since the Sino-Soviets were only built the first half of 1956 with Russian / Yugoslavian parts and the tooling Equipment from Tula
these are rare in the sense that they are Chinese SKS's Built with Soviet parts. The Stocks are from a hardwood that only were produced in Russia and are a darker colors of red, the Chinese stocks tend to be a softer wood that very in light brown and yellows tones.

Here is a Range Picture, Notice the Mosin Nagant to the Right, Nice Red Stock.. Russian Arctic wood


Any SKS after 1955 will be Chinese since the Soviet Union stopped making them. it sucks that the Chinese never date stamped the SKS.
I know that you can use a calculation to figure out the date using the Serial Number.

TRANSLATING THE SERIAL NUMBERS TO PRODUCTION DATE.

a. Production date in serial number- Commercial variant.
Some commercial production have the production year in the serial numbers. These ones have no factory codes (nfc) and serial numbers of 7 digits. Serial numbers began with 88 and later. The earlier serial numbers have no space while the later ones have a space between the first two and the last 5 digits.

eg: 8812345= 1988 , 02 12345= 2002

b. For factory 26.
Serial number in the millions plus the year of adoption (1956) equal the year of production.

eg:
(<1,000,000 = 0) 0+1956=1956
(2,000,000= 2) 2+1956=1958
(10,000,000 = 10) 10+1956=1966
(24,000,000 = 24) 24+1956=1980

c. For other factories.
The above formula will work on some other factory codes but not all of them. I cannot be certain that your result will be absolutely correct but it's better than not giving you a solution at all.

I would suggest that you try it on your SKS with a triangle, rectangle or oblong codes which has 8 digit serial numbers (ignore importer's prefix and suffix numbers). It will not work with 7 digit serial numbers. Use it in conjunction with the production classes below and see what you come up with.

KFS is Keng's Firearm Specialties in Atlanta, GA.
They were formerly importers of Chinese firearms. Now they're known for bringing in the "Versa-Pod" line of bipods-Chinese made "Harris type" bipods.
Keng's guns came in during the 80's, for the most part.

According to this site- http://www.yooperj.com/SKS-24.htm

"Starting in late 1956 the Chinese started using their own serial numbering scheme for the /26\ Jianshe Arsenal. The way you figure this out is by adding the first digit to the year 1956. This applies to s/n's more than 1,000,000. Late 1956 guns only had 6 digits.

1234567 +1956 = 1957 **** 2234567 + 1956 = 1958 **** 3234567 + 1956 = 1959 **** 4234567 + 1956 = 1960
5234567 + 1956 = 1961 **** 6234567 + 1956 = 1962 **** 7234567 + 1956 = 1963 **** 8234567 + 1956 = 1964
9234567 + 1956 = 1965 **** 10234567 + 1956 = 1966 **** 11234567 + 1956 = 1967 ****12234567 + 1956 = 1968

You get the idea. The latest s/n for factory 26 rifles that I have seen was 24000000 (24 million) series which would be 1980.
This scheme seems to only apply to those rifles made at the /26\ Jianshe Arsenal." pre-ban.