No "Type 56" characters?

[RoscoeTurner]

Forgive me for such a basic question I am new to the SKS.  I have searched and not found an answer.  1971 production double A arsenal rifle.  Is the lack of the "Type 56" characters indicate the rifle was manufactured for export rather than for the PLA?

[echo1]

Is there an arsenal stamp and numbers on the mag, TG, and bolt carrier that match the receiver? PAX

[RoscoeTurner]

Is there an arsenal stamp and numbers on the mag, TG, and bolt carrier that match the receiver? PAX

All matching numbers on the magazine, trigger group, bolt carrier and stock, no sign of scrubbing and renumbering.  No arsenal mark on the magazine, only the serial number.  Arsenal mark on the receiver is double A inside a triangle.

[echo1]

If it doesn't say "M21"ahead of the /A\ then likely a commercial rifle. Some pictures may offer clarity, PAX

[running-man]

Forgive me for such a basic question I am new to the SKS.  I have searched and not found an answer.  1971 production double A arsenal rifle.  Is the lack of the "Type 56" characters indicate the rifle was manufactured for export rather than for the PLA?

I am not familiar with "double A arsenal"  Can you post a few photos?

[Greatguns]

How many digits in the SN on the receiver? If only 6 it could be an early /26\ which would not have the 3 Chinese characters.

[Phosphorus32]

Definitely need pictures. There is no Chinese “double-A” arsenal. Perhaps /816\?
https://sks-files.com/index.php?topic=43.0

A 16th year of production (1971) should have the Type 56 marking, 五六式, unless it was scrubbed during refurbishment before export from China. Does it have an import mark?

[RoscoeTurner]

Forgive me for such a basic question I am new to the SKS.  I have searched and not found an answer.  1971 production double A arsenal rifle.  Is the lack of the "Type 56" characters indicate the rifle was manufactured for export rather than for the PLA?

I am not familiar with "double A arsenal"  Can you post a few photos?

The marking on this SKS is like the one marked ?5.

[RoscoeTurner]

Definitely need pictures. There is no Chinese “double-A” arsenal. Perhaps /816\?
https://sks-files.com/index.php?topic=43.0

A 16th year of production (1971) should have the Type 56 marking, 五六式, unless it was scrubbed during refurbishment before export from China. Does it have an import mark?

It is import marked, the area in front of the serial number does not appear to have been scrubbed.

[RoscoeTurner]

How many digits in the SN on the receiver? If only 6 it could be an early /26\ which would not have the 3 Chinese characters.

Serial number is 6-16xxxxx.  I am away but will try to post photos Monday.

[Boris Badinov]

Serial number is 6-16xxxxx.  I am away but will try to post photos Monday.

Only one arsenal  is known to have used that particular serial formula with a month indicator prefix .


/0406\  aka /?5\

[RoscoeTurner]

Tried to post a photo of the serial number and arsenal marking but when I click preview the website goes to the index page.  Is there a problem with the page?

[Boris Badinov]

Tried to post a photo of the serial number and arsenal marking but when I click preview the website goes to the index page.  Is there a problem with the page?

You may not have enough posts on the forum to post photos yet. Not sure.

[Boris Badinov]

I'm 99.99% certain that the arsenal is 0406 aka ?5

Made in the 6th month (June) of 1971.  The  same year I was born.

[theSKSguy45]

Man it must be cool to have a rifle made the year you were born. I’ll never own an sks made the year I was born as I don’t think they made them past 2000.

[RoscoeTurner]

You may not have enough posts on the forum to post photos yet. Not sure.

I posted one earlier in the thread, could be the system caught up with me.

[RoscoeTurner]

I'm 99.99% certain that the arsenal is 0406 aka ?5

Made in the 6th month (June) of 1971.  The same year I was born.

Same birth month but in 71 I was in high school.

[RoscoeTurner]

Digging around last night I found this message from Running--Man on Reddit that answers my question.  Hopefully he will not mind me reposting this.

running--man
•
4y ago
•
This arsenal was classified as 0306 or 0406 during Howie Bearse’s original classification back in the late 90’s. Unfortunately, it is impossible to determine that it isn’t 0036, 3600, 4006 etc. we call this arsenal /?5\ (unknown #5) at www.sks-files.com. We do, however, have a good idea of the years of manufacture of this series of guns based on component observations of hundreds of specimens and the application of the nth year date code that is standard on almost every Chinese type 56 SKS.

The first year seen from this arsenal appears to be year 11 (1966) while the final year seen is year 21 (1976).

The number in front of the dash runs from 1 to 12 and based on the sequential serial number progression is almost certainly the month when the carbine was built.

Your carbine is a 2nd month, year 14 gun (February, 1969).

The stock, while nice, is not original to the gun (as evidenced by the lack of S/N and the blade bayo groove). The rear sling swivel location has absolutely no bearing on whether a bayo was a blade or spike. The gun is built to military specifications, it is not a ‘commercially’ built gun. Other Chinese military arsenals who built guns during the same years as this such as /256\ also did not include the 五六式 stamp.

[Greasemonkey]

You may not have enough posts on the forum to post photos yet. Not sure.

I posted one earlier in the thread, could be the system caught up with me.

There is not a minimum number of posts required to post photos.
Here is a suggestion from the chat box on how to post photos. I believe it's a random software upgrade glitch which we haven't been able to track down and resolve.

Hey, for the benefit of all, if you're having trouble posting images, preview your post with ONE image that works to show you the post WITH the image. If imgbb adds a URL that won't work, copy and paste the first part of the URL that DID work to the ineffectual URL. That's how I got around the photo issue.

Don't know if that helps.. I use a different method.

[RoscoeTurner]

You may not have enough posts on the forum to post photos yet. Not sure.

I posted one earlier in the thread, could be the system caught up with me.

There is not a minimum number of posts required to post photos.
Here is a suggestion from the chat box on how to post photos. I believe it's a random software upgrade glitch which we haven't been able to track down and resolve.

Hey, for the benefit of all, if you're having trouble posting images, preview your post with ONE image that works to show you the post WITH the image. If imgbb adds a URL that won't work, copy and paste the first part of the URL that DID work to the ineffectual URL. That's how I got around the photo issue.

Don't know if that helps.. I use a different method.

Thanks much!  Will give that a try.