This Chinese Type 56 carbine is chambered in 7.62×39, carries serial D241411xx, and was made at Factory 26 in 1980, at the very end of Chinese Type 56 production. All of its numbers match apart from the stock, which does not match the rifle. In place of the usual wooden gas tube cover it carries the brown synthetic cover that collectors have nicknamed the French tickler, a feature of the last years of production. The cleaning kit is present in the buttstock trap. 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. 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, with synthetic furniture appearing on the latest rifles in place of wood.
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: 1980
Serial: D241411xx
Matching: All numbers matching apart from the stock, which does not match
Gas tube cover: Brown synthetic, the type collectors call the French tickler
Mechanical condition: Excellent
Bore: Mirror bright
Magazine: Fixed ten round, stripper clip fed
Included: Cleaning kit in the buttstock trap
