Domestic Laminate // Extending known serial range // S/N 11450116

[CanadianLanBoy]

Hello all, first post here!

Wanted to share with you my 1966 domestic Laminate gun. As far as I know, only a few of these guns are known to exist (<10) and a handful of stocks are floating around. The rifle is all matching apart from the mag which was swapped during modification for magazine restriction compliance (Live in Canada)

Felt it was notable to share, as it falls beyond the previously accepted serial # range (11479XXX - 11539XXX). The existance of this rifle extends the range by ~~30,000 guns.

Defining features are the extremely thin laminations (Clear in pic from the rear of the dust cover), lack of rear cross bolt, and the lack of reinforce at the end of the bayonet channel.

[echo1]

Welcome from Kali. Nice rifle, quite different laminate for sure, PAX

[Greatguns]

Looks like a regular Chinese Laminated stock to me. Not many of them made, but Ive seen a couple here in the US. RM, Phos32, or Boris probably have a better quantity count.

[running-man]

Greetings from New Mexico. Very nice carbine you have there. I'll go through my records and see what S/Ns I have in terms of Chinese laminates.  I don't believe a formal database has ever been set up for these (certainly not here at SKS files) so maybe it would be nice to start one up. One thing about these that I've noticed is that there are original plain stocked guns intermixed in the S/N range. Makes coming up with a number produced extremely difficult. You're right though, they are extremely uncommon if not downright rare.

Again, great carbine and thanks for sharing!

[CanadianLanBoy]

Greetings from New Mexico. Very nice carbine you have there. I'll go through my records and see what S/Ns I have in terms of Chinese laminates.  I don't believe a formal database has ever been set up for these (certainly not here at SKS files) so maybe it would be nice to start one up. One thing about these that I've noticed is that there are original plain stocked guns intermixed in the S/N range. Makes coming up with a number produced extremely difficult. You're right though, they are extremely uncommon if not downright rare.

Again, great carbine and thanks for sharing!

A somewhat accurate number would be nice! A few years back I just wrote down the handful I could find online

[Phosphorus32]

Definitely a nice Type 56 with the Chinese laminate. Welcome and thanks for sharing 

It’d be difficult to get a good estimate on something like the laminated stocks where they were installed during a range of serial numbers but the bulk of the stocks during that time were possibly still the standard hardwood (qiu). One would need a substantial sample size of serial numbers and the two original stock types to define the SN range and determine the proportion of each. That still has some assumptions of unknown veracity, such as, they were randomly installed at a consistent rate during the serial number range, and they had the same survival rate during use and refurbishment/replacement before export. Well, nobody said the data gathering and analysis was easy, least of all our resident data guru RM