1956 SKS

[yiping]

Picked up a 1956 Chinese SKS at gun show today. After cleaning up all the cosmoline(or axle grease ) I find that stock has been printed Just wonder has anybody seen that before ? Thanks

[Modean]

Looks like a professional paint job by bubba. The rifle itself looks to be just fine.

[martin08]

These came out of storage in Albania, as evidenced by the (backwards mounted) Albanian-styled sling and straps. Almost anything could have happened to the gun while issued, refurbished, stored. Hundreds of oddities have surfaced with these guns. I would lean toward the instance that it was imported with the paint. Looks like an old application.

[yiping]

Thanks for the info I do not think it was done by bubba here in the state Due to all the cosmoline that I have to remove.

[grasslander]

Your pics got me wondering, so I went back to my safe to check out my '78 Albanian and my '56 Sino-Soviet. Both have the side (Calvary) sling mount on the stock like yours, but neither has any stamped serial numbers like yours (i.e., cyrillic and 4 numbers, but not matching your left receiver side). I found out my Sino-Soviet was later fitted with an Albanian stock because when I removed its single trap-door butt plate, there were two holes underneath, characteristic of the Albanian having both an oiler and a cleaning kit. BTW, neither hole in the stock lines up with the single trap in the butt plate. Who knows which party is responsible for that coverup!

What's under your butt plate? I suspect you will find just one hole, so maybe an enterprising Chinese worker stamped the stock with the Russian serial numbers, but why wasn't the your receiver serial number used? It's fun to speculate . . .

[yiping]

There is just one hole underneath the butt plate on this stock. My other Chinese SKS with 1958 date did have two holes underneath butt plate.

[grasslander]

My other Chinese SKS with 1958 date did have two holes underneath butt plate.

Does your '58 SKS show an I/O import stamp on the barrel? I have seen the double trapdoor butt plate on several I/O Sino-Soviet rifles at gun shows.
One even had an "Albanian" paint job similar to yours and a Tula star on the receiver cover ($400 as I recall the price marked) and essentially no bluing left.

My guess is that the Albanians were cutting down their surplus stocks that had two holes to refit the Chinese rifles that needed repair and just used the original single trapdoor butt plate . Since these rifles came as foreign aid, one could easily assume they ran short of their own butt plate supply.

Conclusion: Ain't that a "Kick in the Butt!"

[yiping]

The 1958 SKS is a CAI import, and not much of bluing on it.

[Tex]

Dear Yiping:
Back in 1986-1987 when the first batch of Chinese SKS's were imported by Century Arms (I think), these were all early Blade Type SKS's that were very worn and had seen a lot of service use. All the stocks had been brushed painted with a ugly redish brown paint where you could even see the brush strokes over what was left of the original finish. The paint looked a lot like what is on your rifle, as you can see that they painted over some of the sling swivels hardware. The second batch that came in were spike bayonet versions, as I picked up my Sheet Metal version Chinese SKS with this batch but the stock was also painted with the same ugly redish brown paint which I removed as it was so thick you could hardly read the serial number in the stock.
Tex

[yiping]

Dear Yiping:
Back in 1986-1987 when the first batch of Chinese SKS's were imported by Century Arms (I think), these were all early Blade Type SKS's that were very worn and had seen a lot of service use. All the stocks had been brushed painted with a ugly redish brown paint where you could even see the brush strokes over what was left of the original finish. The paint looked a lot like what is on your rifle, as you can see that they painted over some of the sling swivels hardware. The second batch that came in were spike bayonet versions, as I picked up my Sheet Metal version Chinese SKS with this batch but the stock was also painted with the same ugly redish brown paint which I removed as it was so thick you could hardly read the serial number in the stock.
Tex

Thanks for the info. Beside the ugly paint on this rifle, everything else seems to be in very condition, with excellent bore.

[Hobe Sound Falcon]

I once saw a beat to Hell 1956 at a Gun Shop. yours looks far better. Paul