This Chinese Type 56 carbine is chambered in 7.62×39, carries serial 122346xx and was made in 1978. The left side of the receiver is stamped with an arsenal mark of a triangle enclosing the number 26, the Chinese characters for Type 56, and the serial number. The last five digits of the serial are repeated on the bolt, the bolt carrier, the trigger group, the magazine, the barrel and the buttstock, so the rifle is all matching. It carries its folding spike bayonet, bright in the white, along with its cleaning rod, and it comes with its cleaning kit and a canvas sling. The stock is Chinese hardwood with a warm orange red finish, the bluing is deep and even, and the carbine is in very good condition with a mirror bright bore.
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, triangle 26 mark
Country of origin: China
Model: Type 56 carbine (SKS)
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Caliber: 7.62×39
Year: 1978
Serial: 122346xx
Matching: Bolt, bolt carrier, trigger group, magazine, barrel and stock all numbered to the rifle
Condition: Very good
Bore: Mirror bright
Magazine: Fixed ten round, stripper clip fed
Bayonet: Folding spike bayonet, in the white
Stock: Chinese hardwood
Markings: Triangle enclosing 26 arsenal mark and the Chinese characters for Type 56 on the receiver
Included: Cleaning kit, cleaning rod and canvas sling
