I have a copy of a U.S.Army translation dated 1976 of the Russian Book "Fifty Years of Soviet Small Arms" by D.N.Bolotin who was the curator of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Communication Troops 1967, 583 pages. This translation was never printed in official publications but was mainly used in intellgence branch and was available on micro film. At sometime someone took the time to print out a hard copy of this translation of double sided 81/2 x 11 to 716 pages.In the chapter V "Desiging Automatic Rifles and Carbines" the fist SKS model design is discussed as a SKS-1941 model, Cal. 7.62x54r, permanent magazine for 5 cartridges loaded from a standard clip of the 1891/30, there was a second test model that had a 10 round magazine that was also permanent attached and loaded in the same manner, but with a special clip that held 10 rounds, detachable bayonet and muzzle brake. This rifle was tested aganist a Tokarev design carbine and found to have less parts (90 pieces) Tokarev design and compared to the Simonov design of (50 parts) and with a permanent attached magazine where is the Tokarev carbine had a detachable magazine. The Artillery Committee recommend the manufacture a series of 1941 model Simonov (SKS41) of 50 pieces for troop testing. This carbine was to have the 5 round magazine but the 10 round magazine was given special attention to correct and eliminate jamming. These test and evaluations were finally carried out three years later in 1944 chambered for the 1943 (7.62x41)?model cartridge. The revised model of the SKS1943 model itroduced a non-detachable-folding bayonet of the knife type, the muzzle brake was removed. The metallic housing which covers the gas withdrawal unit is replaced by a detachable gas chamber connected to the hand guard. Vertical grooves intended for loading the magazine from a clip run from the upper part of the receiver to the forward part of the bolt bar. This model of the SKS43 was field tested in June of 1944 against the Model 1940 Tokarev rifle. The military testing of the Model1943 SKS was postived, but there were a number of improvements that had to be made before adoption. These test were carried out by the Commission of the First Byelo-Russian Front. The adoption of the SKS was to be: 7.62-mm 1945 model Simonov system self-loading carbine (SKS-45). After the adoption of the self-loading Simonov system carbine as armament, the inventor continued his work on improving its design. Samples of the SKS-45 are retained in which different design changes have been made, and although some of these were adopted in production, like any creative search there are considerable interest, disclosing the concepts of the designer in further improvments of this model.
Robert "Tex" Hanes
