I have read that a lot of the Chinese stocks are made from Catalpa wood. The Albanian stocks are longer and would be cut back in the front when fitted to a Chinese SKS. My Chinese/Albanian was imported by GCI in Knox County Tennessee. I purchased mine in 2017 from J&G. I think my stock is a Chinese stock but there are no serial numbers on it.

You have an Albanian replacement stock made to fit a T56 on yours, the grain is unmistakable.  Cut down Albanian stocks meant for Model 561 Albanian SKSs are uncommon, but they are around and they have the large cavity (and usually a 2 hole buttplate) at the rear.  You can typically tell them a mile away because they fit pretty poorly at the front ferrule too:



Here are the Alby 561 vs T56 stocks side by side, you can see where the cutdown would have to happen to make the longer 561 stocks fit (note the 561 stocks will always be side swivel):


Here's my first Sino-Banian right after unboxing in 2012 when we didn't know 1/10th of what we knew today...basically the gun that started me on my journey to research them:

Quote from: Ret-Sarge on April 01, 2020, 06:31:22 PM

IO Inc Palm Bay, Florida. It's stamped on the right side of the barrel, below rhe handguard and gas tube assembly.

Very nice.  That's identical to a 2014 import stamp.  It's highly likely that this is a relatively old gun that was initially wholesaled and stored (or stored then wholesaled), and finally sold at retail in your LGS.  Haven't seen those IOs at retail for a good long while and I've only seen FOXTROT, PW, and IARMS stamps on the current batch of 10-13 mil /26\s Sino-Banians.   

The stock is most certainly a Chinese stock.  May very well be the original stock for the gun, the font size is correct for a ghost even if it not legible.  The wood is not beech which would be a dead giveaway that it was an Alby replacement. 

I'd be a little wary of using what's under the buttplate to determine a whole lot.  You can literally find almost anything back there:

Early 2 mil /26\ Chinese w/ original stock:




A late ghost with a replacement Russian laminated stock that was renumbered by the Albanians (don't see this very often at all):




A mid-ghost, this time having an unnumbered Albanian replacement stock.  In the second photo, you can see the telltale 'fish scale flecks' that are the dead giveaway:



A true Albanian (unfortunately bubba got to this one) missing the buttplate:



Here is what the cavity of a true Albanian looks like in detail:


Finally, I have two Albanian stocks for Albanian Model 561 SKS (two stocks on either side), and an a Albanian stock that was made to fit an early blade Chinese type 56 (center).  You can see the differences in the swivel placement and the cavities in the rear of the stock. 

Thank you for the education and confirmation on it being a Chinese stock.

I picked this gun up in May of 2015, and it was still slathered in cosmoline. The bolt was literally a block of grease, the firing pin wouldn't move at all, the gas tube was the same way. Took a lot of cleaning over a few days to get her clean. I left the stock hanging in the shed over a bucket for two days to cook some of the grease out of it. It had close to 1/2 of grease in it when I was done.

IO Inc Palm Bay, Florida. It's stamped on the right side of the barrel, below rhe handguard and gas tube assembly.

Very nice.  That's identical to a 2014 import stamp.  It's highly likely that this is a relatively old gun that was initially wholesaled and stored (or stored then wholesaled), and finally sold at retail in your LGS.  Haven't seen those IOs at retail for a good long while and I've only seen FOXTROT, PW, and IARMS stamps on the current batch of 10-13 mil /26\s Sino-Banians.   

The stock is most certainly a Chinese stock.  May very well be the original stock for the gun, the font size is correct for a ghost even if it not legible.  The wood is not beech which would be a dead giveaway that it was an Alby replacement. 

I'd be a little wary of using what's under the buttplate to determine a whole lot.  You can literally find almost anything back there:

Early 2 mil /26\ Chinese w/ original stock:




A late ghost with a replacement Russian laminated stock that was renumbered by the Albanians (don't see this very often at all):




A mid-ghost, this time having an unnumbered Albanian replacement stock.  In the second photo, you can see the telltale 'fish scale flecks' that are the dead giveaway:



A true Albanian (unfortunately bubba got to this one) missing the buttplate:



Here is what the cavity of a true Albanian looks like in detail:


Finally, I have two Albanian stocks for Albanian Model 561 SKS (two stocks on either side), and an a Albanian stock that was made to fit an early blade Chinese type 56 (center).  You can see the differences in the swivel placement and the cavities in the rear of the stock. 

Man, that thing looks pristine! Not bad at all for a surprise find. Timing is everything.

Pretty cool looking rifle! Thanks for posting up those pictures and giving us some background.  Lucky you; your rifle was able to hold onto its bayonet despite the other swapping of parts that went on.

I'm a proud owner of a ghost myself, and I love a rifle with some character to it. This site is a huge resource for information, it even features the closest thing to a "trench art database" that I've ever seen.

I'm curious...how were you able to figure out that your stock was Chinese and not an Albanian replacement? I ask because I was wondering the same thing about mine...

In my case the buttstock has a single trap door butt plate on it, plus there isn't a second hole under the plate (So a one hole buttstock and one hole butt plate). That sounds dirty now that I read it, also there is the faint remnants of a serial number on the buttstock. Which I was told was indicative of a Chinese stock and not an Albanian one. Then there is the color of the finish on stock and wood the stock is made, which I can't tell you the difference between one type of wood used versus another type.  Also because the stock fits properly, some but not all of the Albanian replacement stocks are ill fitting. Location of the butt sling swivel.

I'm far from being expert, just from what I've read and been told.

Yoopers site has a guide of the stocks to help, which also shows pictures. Don't know if it's bad form to post a link on here, but here's the link.

http://www.yooperj.com/SKS-18.htm