Author Topic: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine  (Read 6748 times)

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Offline Phosphorus32

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Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« on: June 23, 2018, 08:15:57 PM »
Allan's Armory offered this well worn Type 53 a couple of weeks ago and as soon as I looked at the pictures it called my name. I've wanted one of these early production "trials" Type 53s, so this one hitched a ride across the country to me in the back of my favorite brown trucks.

It's in good condition though the bluing is obviously less than factory fresh, and it has a replacement handguard. It has an incredibly smooth (broken-in) bolt, a clean breaking trigger with a consistent 5lb-10oz trigger pull, a smooth crown and a good bore that'll likely shoot out to very good.

It's one of the early Navy Arms imports, where the N.A. Co. I would expect to see as part of the import stamp may have been missed in a very light strike of the stamp. The 7.62mm seems to have been struck squarely, more deeply and separately from the other part of ths stamp. In any case, the Ridgefield NJ identifies the importer as Navy Arms, and hence indicates that this is a Type 53 that came directly to the US from China. I prefer NA's smaller stamp to the Century billboard on the Albanian imports. It sure could use a nice original cord-tied (dirty and worn) Type 53 sling, like in the appendix of Edwin Lowe's "Militia Marksmanship Training Manual".

Anyhow, hope you enjoy it!


Character meaning "trials" or "test" just to the right of the serial number:




















SERIAL NUMBERS











Online Loose}{Cannon

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #1 on: June 23, 2018, 08:23:10 PM »
Nice!   
      
1776 will commence again if you try to take our firearms... It doesn't matter how many Lenins you get out on the street begging for them to be taken.

Offline martin08

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #2 on: June 23, 2018, 08:26:19 PM »
These are hard to find in original matching condition.  Good choice.

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2018, 08:32:13 PM »

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2018, 08:35:14 PM »
These are hard to find in original matching condition.  Good choice.

Thanks M08!  :) I'm really very pleased with it.

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2018, 11:35:19 PM »
Nice P32!  thumb1 

I had seen his email blast and looked over the couple of photos he always includes in the item listing link but it being a Mosin I didn't pull the trigger.  Looks like you got yourself a really nice one though! 

Those zany Chinese and their oddball serializing schemes!  :o
      

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2018, 11:42:07 PM »
Nice P32!  thumb1 

I had seen his email blast and looked over the couple of photos he always includes in the item listing link but it being a Mosin I didn't pull the trigger.  Looks like you got yourself a really nice one though! 

Thanks!  :) She's a winner!


Those zany Chinese and their oddball serializing schemes!  :o

Who knew?!   ???  rofl

Offline Justin Hell

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2018, 12:55:54 AM »
I keep running into my T53 over the last few days....and haven't cleared her throat. My last SKS has her in need of some new wall mounts to be made.   I should take that shoulder thumper out for a date soon.

Your new acquisition is quite the looker...nice score.   I doubt I will ever let another slip by, but they are pretty uncommon to see in these parts.

I am curious about the 'trials' aspect, hadn't the Russian M44 tuned in the idea of shortening a half century old gun like nine years earlier?  Could these be marked differently for another reason?  Like the SKS 'accuracy gun'?

 thumb1 thumb1 thumb1

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #8 on: June 24, 2018, 07:55:33 AM »
I keep running into my T53 over the last few days....and haven't cleared her throat. My last SKS has her in need of some new wall mounts to be made.   I should take that shoulder thumper out for a date soon.

Your new acquisition is quite the looker...nice score.   I doubt I will ever let another slip by, but they are pretty uncommon to see in these parts.

I am curious about the 'trials' aspect, hadn't the Russian M44 tuned in the idea of shortening a half century old gun like nine years earlier?  Could these be marked differently for another reason?  Like the SKS 'accuracy gun'?

 thumb1 thumb1 thumb1

Thanks JH! Yeah, I’ve never seen a Type 53 locally, so certainly scarce around here but not in general.

The meaning of the character is well established to be trial or test but you’re probably correct that it isn’t a trial in the 1943 Izhevsk M44 sense of producing ~50,000 rifles for field trials, as well as production trials. For the Chinese, I suspect it was possibly just the production aspect, with direct Russian assistance, that was a trial. ~62,000 were produced from June through December of 1953, whereas over 300K were produced in 1954 when they really had ramped up production. I think the Chinese were very familiar with the characteristics of the M44 and committed to production of their own clone when they started production.  :)

Offline carls sks

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #9 on: June 24, 2018, 09:21:13 AM »
looks like a good one, bayo is mean looking. have a few mosins and learned something today. thanks for sharing.  thumb1
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Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #10 on: June 24, 2018, 10:36:38 AM »
The 'shi mark.. never seen one person. Nice  thumb1 I've always had good luck with Allen's, great guy to deal with.. It might cost you a hair more than the average going price, but, you definitely wont be disappointed with what you get.

 Once and a bluemoon these pop up in my area....usually they have been utterly destroyed, turned into some wackjobs 500 dollar Crapco camo extend-a-stock wannabe sniper.

I do like the Type 53, usually they are like gorilla weld, very tough and very ugly, because pretty ones are few and far between. I bought 2, got a '54 and a '55 from the first Albanian batch, it was a crap shoot, because some had crappy bores. Both the ones I got, have beautiful bores, even though outside, they are uglier than 3 day old sin.. chuckles1

One has a red/yellow paint mark on the butt plate and a rack number painted on the butt, another one of those mystery marks, something I'd guess was Albanian done. I've seen a few pictures of similar marks, but no one has come up with a hardcore logical reason what it means.
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2018, 02:24:06 PM »
Yeah, his prices have gone up lately, in general. However, I was very happy to pay $200 for this one. My most expensive Type 53 to date but worth it.

Yeah, it seems likely that the Albanians Type 53s would have been nearly new and/or only used by the PLA for a few years before being shipped out to Albania. The Type 53s that stayed in China and were imported by Navy Arms would have likely seen service with the militias and could pick up Chinese militia marks. Of course, this one doesn't have anything distinguishing on it in the way of markings.

Obviously all the shellac is gone from mine and it has plenty of oil staining behind the receiver tang and dents/dings but I like the looks.  :)

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2018, 03:42:36 PM »
I think both China and then Albania put some whoopin on some Type 53s, while others sat around in a crate or in a storage facility.. while they are both 30years newer than the non updated Dragoons.. they look 30 years older.  They is ugly..but I like them. :)


I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #13 on: June 25, 2018, 06:52:41 PM »
I think both China and then Albania put some whoopin on some Type 53s, while others sat around in a crate or in a storage facility.. while they are both 30years newer than the non updated Dragoons.. they look 30 years older.  They is ugly..but I like them. :)




Nice pair!  thumb1

Definitely the Type 53s saw hard use in both countries, with some well-preserved, near new examples from China. I've never seen a cosmetically pristine, or even very good, example from the Albanian imports.

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #14 on: July 05, 2018, 01:37:31 PM »
I showed my Chinese co-worker the "shi" marking and he confirmed that it means test.
It's in traditional Chinese:
The newer simplified ideograph would be:

Offline Justin Hell

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #15 on: July 05, 2018, 05:36:48 PM »
I showed my Chinese co-worker the "shi" marking and he confirmed that it means test.
It's in traditional Chinese:
The newer simplified ideograph would be:

Interesting...I wonder if it was a test gun in regards to them manufacturing them using their own materials rather than to test the design itself.  Very cool score regardless.... I got to make a sky pumpkin with mine last night to keep the neighborhood in check...we don't have a local fireworks stand, so the neighborhood makes due with what is onhand. 
chuckles1

Have you asked your co-worker if DB or DP might mean anything?  I keep awaiting the mystery of that to be unveiled with an easy explanation from some random person with random knowledge. :)

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #16 on: July 05, 2018, 05:49:18 PM »
Yeah, my opinion is still like my earlier response. I think it was a "test" of 7 months of getting their Mosin manufacturing online, and the kinks worked out, all with Russian assistance, before full scale production ramped up in 1954-56. I'm sure they used some Russian M44s in Korea and wanted more to outfit the PLA.

These will shoot balls of flames. That must have been a good flash bang display.

Neighbor: "Listen to this pack of Black Cats"
JH: "Nice. Listen to this..." tommy1  rofl

I haven't asked him about DB DP. I'll show him a picture some time.

Offline Justin Hell

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #17 on: July 05, 2018, 06:04:07 PM »
There were a few folks with traditional fireworks, but at least in my immediate border sharing neighbors...I am almost certain it was all guns.  Mine was loudest. I have had bigger pumpkins, but perhaps the Bulgarian heavy ball restricts them to being lesser vs. great pumpkins.  chuckles1

My daughter was all.... No Dad...don't do that.  Her laughter after I did anyway was the highlight of my holiday. I think the slightly more local volley also helped calm my huskies to the Falluja that was Clinton Montana last night.

I so would love an SKS in this caliber...but fear of priapism must have been considered by the powers that were.  :o

Offline Greasemonkey

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #18 on: July 05, 2018, 06:28:02 PM »
Go find yourself some Albanian x54r... out of the multitude of ammos I have, it seems to be the biggest fireball, pumpkin no, big beachball, oh yeah. I have a handful of Chinese x54r, but never tried it, they say it's pretty good too.

I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse......

Leave the gun, take the cannoli.

I said I was an addict........I didn't say I had a problem

Offline Phosphorus32

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Re: Chinese Type 53 Trials Carbine
« Reply #19 on: July 05, 2018, 06:31:31 PM »
There were a few folks with traditional fireworks, but at least in my immediate border sharing neighbors...I am almost certain it was all guns.  Mine was loudest. I have had bigger pumpkins, but perhaps the Bulgarian heavy ball restricts them to being lesser vs. great pumpkins.  chuckles1

My daughter was all.... No Dad...don't do that.  Her laughter after I did anyway was the highlight of my holiday. I think the slightly more local volley also helped calm my huskies to the Falluja that was Clinton Montana last night.

 rofl chuckles1 Great stuff...'murica!  thumb1




I so would love an SKS in this caliber...but fear of priapism must have been considered by the powers that were.  :o

...and I'd love a Mosin carbine in 7.62x39. There have been pictures of some rare trials (truly trials rifles) from the former USSR but no known examples in the US.