Chinese 11 year code SKS with no arsenal marks

[theSKSguy45]

This rifle was posted to Reddit today https://www.reddit.com/r/SKS/s/rJGdcGgwpS and I’m coming up blank (pun intended). I see there was another VERY similar looking rifle posted there two years ago https://www.reddit.com/r/SKS/s/08YBTEH5DT that Justin commented on as well. These look VERY similar and those stamps look pretty original to my eye so it doesn’t scream scrubbed. Any thoughts on what these could be?

[Boris Badinov]

The absence of 56type designation, arsenal stamp, and the barrel thread timing number suggests a scrub and re-stamp. Commercial era import 1984-94

[running-man]

Also the hodgepodge of components seems to indicate it's a carbine built from whatever parts could be scrounged up. On the carbine that has the four photos, you can see a milled trigger group, milled gas block, 2 piece gas tube, late bolt carrier, late bayo lug, short threaded barrel lug, spike bayo, etc.  In my experience this mismatch indicates a late commercial build like Boris mentioned.  The serial is the smoking gun however, there are many '11' prefixed carbines I've seen that all exhibit a variety of mismatch features and the import stamps of each line up with the '88 to '94 importers.

[Boris Badinov]

Good eye, rm  .

I didn't even occur to me to check the mix of era specific featires.

[theSKSguy45]

So where is the year on the rifle? Pretty much every other commercial rifle I’ve seen has had something denoting the year it was assembled (or rather re assembled).

[Phosphorus32]

So where is the year on the rifle? Pretty much every other commercial rifle I’ve seen has had something denoting the year it was assembled (or rather re assembled).

Well it's certainly not an 11th year gun. The date range that RM cited, 1988-94, is about as good as you're going to get on this "made for export sales" Norinco parts gun.

[running-man]

Yeah these particular '11' prefixed carbines simply don't have year codes. Why that is is anyone's guess, but it's not uncommon for late commercial imports. I'll post up some examples from my files next time i get a few free minutes in front of the computer.