Sino Soviet SKS / Norinco ?

I have an SKS with a serial number consisting of a letter prefix with 4 following digits. To the right of the serial number is the /26\ (triangle 26) mark that from what I have read indicates a sino soviet rifle made in China in 1956. Further down the receiver there is the following stamp: NORINCO SKS 7.62X39 CHINA KSI POMONA CA. The stock is reddish in color but has no markings at all. The serial number on the side of the receiver, the bolt, trigger assembly and the receiver cover all match, but there is no serial number on the mag assembly.

Did NORINCO import Sino Soviet rifles but put new stocks and mag assemblies on the rifles?

OK ... here's the deal (photos are always helpful, though).

You have a 1956 Sino-Soviet that was made before Norinco existed. It was most likely in the arsenal of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) or possibly that of the Peoples Armed Police (PAP) ... the Tienamin tank drivers.

It would have been brought into the U.S. in the late '80s or early '90s. It sounds like it was remanufactured by Norinco before being shipped out. You're lucky to get it. It's probably in very good condition. A very few of the early Sino-Soviets were mixed in with the cheaper-made Norincos. It's a long story.

Post photos!

need pics.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a keeper. Pics as requested.

very nice!

Holy chit that looks great!

dementlr said:

I have an SKS with a serial number consisting of a letter prefix with 4 following digits. To the right of the serial number is the /26\ (triangle 26) mark that from what I have read indicates a sino soviet rifle made in China in 1956. Further down the receiver there is the following stamp: NORINCO SKS 7.62X39 CHINA KSI POMONA CA. The stock is reddish in color but has no markings at all. The serial number on the side of the receiver, the bolt, trigger assembly and the receiver cover all match, but there is no serial number on the mag assembly.

Did NORINCO import Sino Soviet rifles but put new stocks and mag assemblies on the rifles?

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I know of at least one Norinco Sino-Soviet chromed Honor Guard rifle

tHAT'S A GREAT LOOKING RIFLE!

It would be useful to see close-up photos of the serial number, both sides of the butt stock. and the part of the fore-stock where the bayonet folds into it. What I'm seeing, so far, is what I expected when I posted my first reply. It looks great, but I don't think that the stock is the one that was originally put onto it. It looks like Norinco re-arsenaled this one, or it was "re-purposed" at some point with a different style of stock than that which was typically put onto that series of action. If you don't want to post the serial no., you can send a photo of it to me in a PM. Do all the nos. on the bolt cover, bolt, etc. match (other than the mag, which you said has no number)? Is there a number on the butt plate?

EDITS (I'll be adding more info here):

Yours may well have been modified to use a detachable (high capacity) mag for export to the U.S. in '87-'89, then returned to the original configuration after California banned them in 1989.

I also think that the stock is not original. There is no number on the butt plate, but all other numbers match. The pic of the serial number is not clear, but it is A6756. The stock appears to have been modified a bit, perhaps to accept an external mag??

Yup. Thats a Mil version that norico exported to the US. Do not confuse this gun with cheaper commercial grade weapons. That is a early Sino-Soviet, not a "Norinco" SKS.

The mag assembly was prolly replaced during a refurb for export.

Yep. What I was supposing is confirmed by the photos. It was a mod to accept a detachable mag (higher capacity) that's been changed back to a standard-capacity mag. This was probably done around 1989, when the California laws were being changed to prohibit high-cap mags. Except for the stock, and a correct (but not original to the rifle) magazine, it's an early Sino-Soviet. The "Norinco" mark is an unusual anomaly on this type of rifle--especially since most people assume that Norinco was the manufacturer. They were not. They were a (long story) shadow export company that sold a number of different kinds of things, including firearms, in order to bring in cash to modernize the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the late '80s and early '90s ... largely buying military hardware from Russia, but also manufacturing stuff in places as remote as the Middle East.

I saw one of these for sale last week asking 399.00 and assumed it was from the recent batch that Classic is selling. I based that on the fact that Classic lists Norinco as the "manufacturer". So from this thread it has me now thinking it is an earlier import and maybe I should go back and check it out more carefully. Just to confirm, the ones from Classic are not marked Norinco?

My Clasic is not marked Norinco.

Arcamm said:

My Clasic is not marked Norinco.

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yours would not be marked that.. Norico has not imported forearms since the 90's



I highly doubt the OP's rifle was a recent classic firearms sale

The Chinese model I bought from Classic a few months back is also marked like a Sino Soviet with the same serial number format and the /26\ factory mark. It has all matching numbers with the exception of the receiver cover. It bears an IO Inc import stamp. It has been heavily used, but functions just fine. I posted a few other pics on the SKS Porn thread.

I had a Russian one handed down to me, never fired and plan to keep it that way. Anyone know any shops in maryland carrying sks in stock? Doesn't have to me in perfect shape I just want something to take to the range every now and then

Rem700fan said:

I saw one of these for sale last week asking 399.00 and assumed it was from the recent batch that Classic is selling. I based that on the fact that Classic lists Norinco as the "manufacturer". So from this thread it has me now thinking it is an earlier import and maybe I should go back and check it out more carefully. Just to confirm, the ones from Classic are not marked Norinco?

Click to expand...

OK ... this is complicated, and I haven't seen the listing that you are talking about, but in general ... here's the short version. Most of this info is from my own research from primary sources. Google-fu will turn up some of this, but it will also turn up a lot of crap ... mostly personal opinions put forward as "facts".

============================

NORINCO was China North Industries, an exporting shadow company set up by the People's Liberation Army to make money that could be used to modernize their forces. The PLA felt that they could kill two birds with one stone: make money by selling inexpensive arms, and keep their military arms-making industry active, with a trained workforce, in case it was needed for national defense.

The People's Armed Police (PAP) had a similar company named China Jin'an ... spelled several different ways, depending upon the source.* They also exported arms to the U.S.

In very loose terms, you can think of the PLA as being like our Army, and the PAP as like our National Guard. Both were military forces, but they had different missions within the country. Both also wanted to upgrade their hardware, and did so in some pretty creative ways.

These two exporters shipped arms to a number of Chinese-owned U.S. businesses from roughly 1987 to 1993. They sent us tons of ammo and huge numbers of SKS and AK-47 rifles (and shotguns, pistols, etc.). But some of the corrupt Chinese officials in these enterprises got greedy and also smuggled in some full-auto weapons. The FBI and BATFE set up a sting and were trying to lure the key players to the U.S., but a couple of U.S. newspapers found out about the sting and the feds had to close the trap prematurely. They arrested a number of people (Chinese and Americans) and seized a lot of assets, but they also lost about $400,000.00 of U.S. money that had been put up to make the sting look like a real illegal arms buy. Most of the key Chinese figures got out of Dodge before the trap was sprung, but China supposedly prosecuted four of them.

One of the things that launched NORINCO into the public eye was when a nut job in California shot up a school playground using a NORINCO AK-47. When the cops searched his room they found some scribbling, including drawings of the NORINCO logo. This added public fuel to the fire, and helped to launch California's current stringent gun laws.

Some people/companies got so used to referring to the Chinese firearms brought in during this time period as "Norincos" that it almost became used as a brand name for any Chinese import (it isn't). Most people still seem to assume that "Norinco" was the manufacturer of the firearms, and it wasn't. It (correctly written "NORINCO", by the way) was an export company set up as a PLA front to export goods made by all sorts of different companies, including various arsenals.

These Chinese exporters studied what they perceived to be American tastes and culture, using that in their marketing efforts. One of the results came out of the realization that rural Americans were fond of having "pickup truck rifles" and so they marketed the inexpensively-made SKSs using what then would have then been language appealing to rural Chinese, and called the rifles, "The Farmers' Friend".

Another Chinese realization was that Americans were fond of special-ops type military weapons. A popular line of U.S. made rifles, at the time, were civilian copies of the M1 carbine that were made by companies like Universal and Plainfield Machine Co. Plainfield had a folding-stock "paratrooper model" rifle in their lineup, and the Chinese saw that it seemed to be popular. They soon came out with a similar "paratrooper model" SKS that was sold at lower prices than those made by Plainfield. These were a complete fabrication made just for the U.S. market ... none were ever used by the Chinese military ... but they found eager buyers (and still do).

In most cases, when you hear of a NORINCO SKS, it's going to be one of the more cheaply made (but not poor quality) Chinese rifles manufactured and exported during the late '80s and early '90s ... but that's not always the case. Along with the newly-manufactured firearms, both the PLA (NORINCO) and the PAP (China Jin'an, or CJA) apparently pulled some older stuff out of their storerooms and exported it, too. If you know what to look for, you might spot one of these high-quality "gold nuggets" sold or disguised as the less desirable NORINCO rifles made in later years. That's what the OP apparently has done.

The OP's SKS seems pretty certainly to have been one of those that was brought out of the PLA stores, probably modified by them to accept high-capacity mags, exported to a NORINCO outlet in California, and then either converted back to the original-type mag there, or perhaps re-converted by NORINCO before being shipped out. This suggests that it's more likely than not that the OP's rifle was one of the later ones to be brought in, when CA was passing a lot of limiting legislation, but the Chinese exporters hadn't been shut down quite yet.

A similar example of a Sino-Soviet SKS rifle that was exported by the PAP is one in my collection. It is marked "CJA" for China Jin'an. This one has the correct stock, for the type and series, made of the same Arctic birch as was used by the Soviets. The replacement stock on the OP's rifle appears to be Chinese "chu" wood ... that we know as a type of catalpa tree.

* Also seen as China Jin An, China Jing An, China Jing'an, China Jingan, China Jinan, CJA, and other variants.

weezy102 said:

I had a Russian one handed down to me, never fired and plan to keep it that way. Anyone know any shops in maryland carrying sks in stock? Doesn't have to me in perfect shape I just want something to take to the range every now and then

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Duffys in sparks has a bunch.

Greatly appreciate the education. One of the reasons I have a C&R is because I enjoy the military/political history associated with various firearms.