The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Thought you fellas might enjoy this odd one, I found this one over the summer. It's an SKS with a 55/56 Russian Tula star marked receiver, a 4 digit serial,and no serial suffix and a Norinco import marking. What I found out on the SKS Boards, this is one that Russia made for the Chinese and "possibly could" predate the true Chinese Sino-Soviet SKS. There are not many of them documented and seem to be few and far between. The numbers all match and even though it has possible Russian metal, the stock, hand guard and sling are Chinese.

Beautiful gun, GM!

You have one of the very few that are still in full carbine length. Most are cut down to the Paratrooper style.

But before I can ascribe to the "earliest" Chinese model, I am going to have to see one that is in original worn bluing, non-import marked, and perhaps papered as a bringback. If these were indeed pre- Sino-Soviet, I think we would have been presented with an example that has some war weary features by now. All examples that I have seen are deep bluing and on Chu Wood stocks vs. the worn bluing and hardwood stocks that are found on the known non-refurbed 1956-1958 Chinese assembled SKS's.

My guess (since China has not released any arsenal data)? These were assembled in the 1980's from left over Russian parts, and exported by Norinco (founded in 1980) for the U.S. commercial market.

Norinco was selling a lot of guns here back then, they couldn't keep up and were shipping anything they could find. Your rifle looks like any of the other Norinkos I remember as far as stock color and overall appearance go. A nice SKS with some interesting markings

Awesome looking rifle. An sks is definitely on my want list haha

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martin08 wrote:Beautiful gun, GM!

You have one of the very few that are still in full carbine length. Most are cut down to the Paratrooper style.

But before I can ascribe to the "earliest" Chinese model, I am going to have to see one that is in original worn bluing, non-import marked, and perhaps papered as a bringback. If these were indeed pre- Sino-Soviet, I think we would have been presented with an example that has some war weary features by now. All examples that I have seen are deep bluing and on Chu Wood stocks vs. the worn bluing and hardwood stocks that are found on the known non-refurbed 1956-1958 Chinese assembled SKS's.

My guess (since China has not released any arsenal data)? These were assembled in the 1980's from left over Russian parts, and exported by Norinco (founded in 1980) for the U.S. commercial market.

Ok, now I understand, I think, the receiver being from Russia, possibly predates Sino-Soviet, everything else including the final build was completed at alot later date out of normal Chinese or any left over Russian parts to form a complete rifle.

Sometimes, I wish the Chinese would just come off the all the info on their SKSs, of course that would take the fun out of it I guess

A very nice SKS

Very nice gun GM. I'm not sure how this relates but I'll throw this in. A few months back someone had an SKS offered that was stated to have maybe been a Vietnam capture Chinese SKS. It was a truely ugly rifle from a finish standpoint. In fairly rough shape from what I remember. If I can remember where I saw it and find a picture I'll post it.

Edit: Ok I think I found it. https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/p ... category=2 I'm not 100% sure this is the one I remember but the coffee is still working it's magic. If I think of another one I'll post it. Oh and as you can see it didn't say captured but that it may have seen action in Vietnam.

WeldonHunter wrote:Very nice gun GM. I'm not sure how this relates but I'll throw this in. A few months back someone had an SKS offered that was stated to have maybe been a Vietnam capture Chinese SKS. It was a truely ugly rifle from a finish standpoint. In fairly rough shape from what I remember. If I can remember where I saw it and find a picture I'll post it.

Edit: Ok I think I found it. https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/p ... category=2 I'm not 100% sure this is the one I remember but the coffee is still working it's magic. If I think of another one I'll post it. Oh and as you can see it didn't say captured but that it may have seen action in Vietnam.

I wouldn't say thats in rough shape, that is character at it's best in my eyes, I've got a '65 blade bayonet arsenal /26\ in the very early 9 million serial that looks almost as new as the one above. One day, I would like to find one with that just found in the jungle look.


Thank for the kind words fellas.

Interesting Rifle. Thanks for sharing.