Puzzle

[Jeonsah]

I've recently acquired a very Chinese SKS. At the end of the day, I'm more into solving this puzzle than I am saying oooh look what I got.

Read several things and have a couple ideas of what I ended up buying, but I'm going to only give the facts I have for now and see what y'all come up with then I'll compare.

Rifle bears serial number 120786 with a C after that appears to have been added later. It's got the Norinco and Poly USA stamps on the receiver but no arsenal code. The 0786 stamp is on the bolt,dust cover, trigger, bolt carrier, magazine, and stock. They appear to match and don't show evidence of being scrubbed or manipulated. They are etched on the piston and gas tube. There are a few marks on the underside of the receiver I can't make out. Spiked bayonet, threaded barrel lug with what appear to be 12 stamped in.

Rifle appears to have been rarely fired. The barrel is chromed and mirror like. There is virtually no wear on the bolt or receivers rail. The face of the piston does some wear but the ridges are clean.

I've included photos and supply more if needed.

[Greatguns]

I have 2 main thoughts on this one; It's an end of run Norinco exported and Polytech imported Chinese SKS. The C on the end of the SN is an importer add-on per ATF regs of the day. My other thought is the possibility of it being an early build from a start up arsenal in preparation of the SKS manufacturing going away from the /26\ arsenal thus giving the 1.2M, 12th year build in the SN. Either of these speculations could account for it not having an arsenal stamp. If it is a 12th year build (1967), and at a glance, it appears to be correct for that year.
Wait for some of the others to chime in though as they will probably have better info on it than myself. Anyway, welcome to the SKS-Files.

[Jeonsah]

Thank you! I will stay quiet until a few others come in and then I'll share what I though vs what yall are able to help with.

[Boris Badinov]

Do you have photos of the trigger and cover serial numbers?

[Boris Badinov]

Disregard.

[Boris Badinov]

It's a puzzle for sure.

My first reaction was:12th year with arsenal and 56type designatiom scrubbed from the receiver, but those stamps would be to the left of the serial number. However the receiver serial is too far to the left to leave room for arsenal and model dedignation stamps. The visible features are also consistent with a 12th year build as GG alresdy pointed out. There are only a small number of arsenal.stamps associated with 12th year production. Not aware of any stamped the serial to the left of the Arsenal and model dedignation, though.

The C is most likley related to exportation/importation and not part of the original serial

It could be a scrub-and-restamp or possibly assembled frok cached parts for commercial export.  But its unusual to see a 7 digit, 12prefix serial on a commercially repurposed type56. Let alone with a complete set of stamped  and matching parts-- in the same font no less.


Those are the options i came up with. From my pov, id say the second option is the most plausible: srcubb and restamp of an existing rifle or a rifle assembled from cached parts and serial stamped in a puzzling manner.





Can you post photos of the stock serial# as well as the serials on the trigger and receiver cove

[running-man]

I believe this to be a late build commercial gun, not a year 12 carbine.  It is likely rebarreled as the match number on that short lug barrel is upside down which you *never* see from OEM factory barrels:



I don't see enough detail on the other parts to know whether it's a franken-gun like some of the late build commercial guns were, but I'd suspect that there could be some period incorrect parts in there. 

Here are some examples of other identically prefixed and serialized guns with similar features:

S/N 1205991, same font as the OP and has a suffix, barrel lug is not marked with a match number so it is likely a replacement.



S/N 1210142, same font as the OP and has a suffix, stock font is serif while receiver and piece part stamps are sans-serif.






S/N 1214994, font does not match the OP, large G5 suffix clearly stamped separate from the S/N, could be a totally different series. 







S/N 1211716, same font as the OP and has a suffix, stock font is serif while receiver and piece part stamps are sans-serif.




S/N 1219619, font does not match the OP, stock is a phenolic replacement, Labanau import so not a Canadian border jumpe that coule be explained as a year '2012' build.

[Jeonsah]

@boris badinov

Requested photos.









@running-man

Thank you. That is not what I was thinking based on what I thought I understood. But I'll wait a bit longer to embarrass myself lol

Are there other photos you Want to see to help figure this out? This photo of the barrel lug included because I just noticed the mark on it.

[Boris Badinov]

Perhaps 12 is not a date code, but an export designating prefix instead?

[Jeonsah]

I hadn't thought about that. I assumed the C was an import stamp and everything else was correct.

[running-man]

It could be Boris. There are quite A few late commercial type 56s with a '1x' numerical prefix. They are oddballs. I never really considered they could be numerically sequential, but that's a possibility too. Would have to find some higher ten thousand digits numbers for that to pan out. I have not tracked these S/Ns so the data is sparse.

Jeonsah, would certainly like to hear your hypothesis on this one. I may be all wet. I've certainly been wrong before. 

[Jeonsah]

Well, my thought was it was an original 67 military surplus that was made at one of the smaller arsenals that didn't have the QC standards that the known arsenals did.

I was hoping one of yall might have recognized the little marks on the bottom of the receiver so I could figure out where it came from.

At the end of the day, I wanted a clean non bubba gun to replace the one I bubbafied in high school and later sold off. This one will remain as is. I've added a period correct sling and replaced the missing rod and kit.

You think sending the serial number to Kang's and paying for the certificate would give us a final answer?

[Jeonsah]

I did submit this to the survey and am happy to provide any other photos needed to help build the database.

[running-man]

Well, my thought was it was an original 67 military surplus that was made at one of the smaller arsenals that didn't have the QC standards that the known arsenals did.

I was hoping one of yall might have recognized the little marks on the bottom of the receiver so I could figure out where it came from.

At the end of the day, I wanted a clean non bubba gun to replace the one I bubbafied in high school and later sold off. This one will remain as is. I've added a period correct sling and replaced the missing rod and kit.

You think sending the serial number to Kang's and paying for the certificate would give us a final answer?

The marks on the bottom of the receiver don't really translate into anything for me.  Sometimes you'll find a casting date or an arsenal designator in a XX-YY-ZZ format, but simple numbers (61) and letters (A BC?) really don't provide much I'm afraid. 

Would certainly be worth a try to see if Kengs can tell you something.  I didn't realize this was a Keng's imported carbine...

I did submit this to the survey and am happy to provide any other photos needed to help build the database.

Very much appreciated!

[Jeonsah]

I appreciate all your input. It's a Poly USA import but I was led to believe they are connected to that. Am I wrong?

[running-man]

Keng's and Poly had connections together and were both in Atlanta, but when Poly got closed down for the LA gangs AK sting, Keng's continued on. It's worth a try to see if Keng's can tell you anything about it.