This Chinese Type 56 SKS carbine is chambered in 7.62×39 and was made by Norinco at Factory 0221, shown by the boxed 0221 mark on the receiver. The receiver is also marked with the Chinese characters for Type 56 and serial 210054xx Y, and the import mark reads "SKS 7.62X39 MADE IN CHINA BY NORINCO CSI ONT CA." All numbers are matching, including the buttstock, receiver cover, bolt carrier, magazine and trigger group. The carbine is in excellent, near-mint condition, with a hardwood stock in a reddish finish and blued metal, the bolt carrier left in the white. The bore is mirror bright. It has its fixed magazine and folding spike bayonet.
The SKS was designed by Sergei Simonov in the Soviet Union during the Second World War, and China began making its own version, the Type 56 carbine, under a mid-1950s agreement with the Soviets. Eighty Chinese factories eventually tooled up for it, with the main line at the Jianshe Machine Tool Factory, Factory 296, and by the 1980s more than nine million had been made. Chinese receivers were made of carbon steel rather than the Soviet chrome-nickel steel. From mid-1964 the Type 56 used a folding spike bayonet in place of the earlier blade, as on this carbine. Beginning in 1988, millions of SKS carbines were sold on the civilian market in the United States and Canada.
Specifications
Manufacturer: Norinco, Factory 0221
Importer: CSI, Ontario, California (as marked)
Country of origin: China
Model: Type 56 SKS
Action: Gas-operated semi-automatic
Caliber: 7.62×39
Serial: 210054xx Y
Matching: All matching
Condition: Excellent, near mint
Stock: Hardwood, reddish finish
Finish: Blued, bolt carrier in the white
Bore: Mirror bright
Magazine: Fixed
Features: Boxed 0221 factory mark on the receiver
Included: Folding spike bayonet (attached)
