This Chinese Type 56 carbine is chambered in 7.62×39 and was made at Factory 26 in 1966. It was brought into the United States by P.W. Arms of Redmond, Washington, whose import mark runs along the right side of the receiver reading SKS 7.62×39 CHINA with the serial SKS016xx, and that importer applied number is the rifle's serial. The left side of the receiver carries the original Chinese markings: the arsenal mark of a triangle enclosing the number 26, the Chinese characters for Type 56, and the factory number 101553xx. The last five digits of that factory number are repeated on the bolt, the bolt carrier, the dust cover and the trigger group, so the carbine is all matching. It carries its folding spike bayonet and its cleaning rod under the barrel. The stock is Chinese hardwood in a pale honey colour. The bore is mirror bright and the carbine is in excellent mechanical condition.
The SKS was designed by Sergei Simonov in the Soviet Union during the Second World War: a gas operated carbine with a tilting bolt and a fixed ten round magazine enclosed in the receiver, loaded either by hand or from a stripper clip that seats in the bolt carrier. The Soviet Union built about 2.7 million of them at Tula and Izhevsk before the AK-47 took over the front line role. In 1955 the Soviets agreed to transfer the SKS, the AK-47 and the 7.62×39 cartridge to China, and parallel production lines were set up there the following year. The Chinese version was designated the Type 56 carbine, and more than nine million had been built by the 1980s, with eighty factories eventually tooled up for it. Chinese carbines are close copies of the Soviet rifle, and over the course of production a greater share of the parts were made by stamping rather than machining. Spike bayonets were fitted to the Chinese Type 56 from the middle of 1964 onward.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Chinese state arsenal, Factory 26
Country of origin: China
Model: Type 56 carbine (SKS)
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Caliber: 7.62×39
Year: 1966
Serial: SKS016xx, applied by the importer
Chinese factory number: 101553xx, on the left side of the receiver
Matching: Bolt, bolt carrier, dust cover and trigger group all numbered to the receiver
Mechanical condition: Excellent
Bore: Mirror bright
Magazine: Fixed ten round, stripper clip fed
Bayonet: Folding spike bayonet
Stock: Chinese hardwood
Markings: Triangle enclosing 26 arsenal mark and the Chinese characters for Type 56 on the receiver
Import mark: P.W. Arms, Redmond, Washington
Included: Cleaning rod
