My Classic Firearms "Chinese" SKS

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  • UpperMarlboroMan

    Active Member
    Mar 11, 2013
    283
    After all the posts here of folks showing off their cool Sino-Albanian SKS rifles from Classic I decided to get one when they dropped the price a few bucks. I got mine yesterday and I want to share my thought process as I was opening up the package and wiping it down...and pictures are worth a thousand words...

    I first checked the magwell to look for the SN...awesome...two Cyrillic letter prefix and four numbers! Off to a good start!

    Then I looked at the trigger guard and it is the same SN number. All things still OK. Then I wipe some of the copious cosmoline off the stock to see the condition. Things look good with no obvious cracks. Even with all the cosmoline on the stock it looks like it might have been sanded in the past, so probably a refurb at some point in its life. The SN matches on the side of the receiver, so all good so far.

    I had noticed that on some of these Classic Chinese SKS threads, that the rifles with the Cyrillic prefixes sometimes don't have matching dust covers. So when I checked mine, I was a little surprised to see a matching serial number. And then I looked at the top of the cover. Be sure to look get a close look at that date as well on my new (to me) "Chinese" SKS.

    Thoughts? I think I did OK. Lots of cosmo to clean off next weekend (instead of raking leaves like I should be doing).
     

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    UpperMarlboroMan

    Active Member
    Mar 11, 2013
    283
    Holy chit, a Tula star. Wanna trade?

    Ha! No thanks! I think I finally lucked out on the internet order lottery.

    Actually, I wonder if this group of imports was in reality a truly mixed bag. I would assume that not all of these were really of Chinese manufacture originally. I think the Russian rifles had the dust covers removed to get rid of the obvious Russian stamps and then just co-mingled with the Chinese rifles.

    When I wiped off that cosmoline to unveil the Tula Star and the 1953 date I thought, "Da Fuh?"
     

    h2u

    Village Idiot
    Jul 8, 2007
    6,693
    South County
    Awesome! This would be the only one of those types of SKS's I would ever be interested in (Cyrillic prefixes). The Tula parts would be icing on the cake!!
    Congrats again, and if you should ever want to turn a pretty penny on that rifle...let me know ;)
     

    Machodoc

    Old Guy
    Jun 27, 2012
    5,745
    Just South of Chuck County
    Winner! It's pretty apparent that when the Russians sent the Tula machinery south, they also shipped whatever parts they had on hand along with them. I'm not surprised to see a Tula stock (nice!) on one of these rifles, but the re-arsenal stamp on that stock seems unusual.
     

    yellowsled

    Retired C&R Addict
    Jun 22, 2009
    9,348
    Palm Beach, Fl
    Winner! It's pretty apparent that when the Russians sent the Tula machinery south, they also shipped whatever parts they had on hand along with them. I'm not surprised to see a Tula stock (nice!) on one of these rifles, but the re-arsenal stamp on that stock seems unusual.

    The cover has a refurb mark on it too. I guess these russians were sent later to Albania. Wierd..
     

    awptickes

    Member
    Jun 26, 2011
    1,516
    N. Of Perryville
    The cover has a refurb mark on it too. I guess these russians were sent later to Albania. Wierd..

    Oddly enough, they were sent with the aid shipments the Chinese were sending to Albania because the Mao empire wanted to build some relationships with the Mao-ist brand of communism. The first shipments went in the early 1960s, some documents point to August of 1964, which would make sense. In the summer of 1964 Chairman Mao decided to ramp down production of the "Type 56" and begin manufacturing the AK-47 for his army, and exporting the SKS, "in case they ever become an enemy."

    The issue is that nobody really knows anymore how these rifles were given to the Albanians, or why, because the Mao empire was so secretive.
     

    yellowsled

    Retired C&R Addict
    Jun 22, 2009
    9,348
    Palm Beach, Fl
    the timeline is wonky somewhere then. Gun was made in 53. It is believed that these chinese/albanians were sent in the late 50's to early 60's. So when exactly was it refurbed by the Russians? Made in 53, used in russia to late 50's to early 60's and then refurbed. Then sent to china in the late 50's or early 60's then immedately sent to Albania?

    Im not sure... I think these must have been a later shipment to albania directly from Russia. Just throwing ideas out there. I am not sure they would refurb them after only a short few years of use in the "homeland"
     

    yellowsled

    Retired C&R Addict
    Jun 22, 2009
    9,348
    Palm Beach, Fl
    I agree.


    The russian sks's with the refurb mark is throwing my off big time. If they were not refurbs then it would not be an issue and it would line up timewise. Something is odd here.
     

    UpperMarlboroMan

    Active Member
    Mar 11, 2013
    283
    I think we need to go with Occam's razor here and go with the easiest scenario likely instead of a convoluted one. I think it is most likely this rifle never saw China ever. This was a Russian refurb that made its way into the same place that the batch of Classic "Chinese Type 56" rifles were imported from. I think many of the folks that received one of these Classic rifles with the two letter Cyrillic prefixes have the same thing BUT almost all of them had the original, Russian stamped dust covers removed and replaced with a non-Russian one. Long story short, I now have a real numbers matching Tula SKS that is stamped with an IO import mark declaring it is of Chinese origin when it clearly is not. I assume that this rifle, and pretty much all the other two letter Cyrillic marked Classic rifles in that import batch, never really saw China at any point. They were mixed in with the Chinese rifles at some point...and someone just assumed that they were all of Chinese origin.

    Thoughts?
     

    yellowsled

    Retired C&R Addict
    Jun 22, 2009
    9,348
    Palm Beach, Fl
    the question still in the air is how Russian "Refubs" made it there? I could only imagine it would be 10-20 or 30 years or more before they were refurbed in Russia. Russia did not have good relations with Albania after they left in the early 60's, so how did they get there in the late 60's 70's or maybe even 80's?
     

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