Factory 625 is actually 256

There is only so much merit you can give to the factory codes concerning the manufacturing process in China. Very little is made in China ALL in the same factory. Many factories only make one part, and the firearm business is even more so in a country where firearm ownership is prohibited. Barrels made in one location, receivers in another, bolts, stocks, ect all from others. Only the final assembly location gets stamped onto the rifle. The security is that no "chevys go home in the lunchbox" type idea. So at the end of the day only the stamp can be sure of where it came from, not the entire rifle.

I sometimes shoot/hunt with a retired Chinese gentleman who was in the Chinese Army as a young man. His account is that all parts come from undisclosed factories to one single location for assembly and stamping. A crate of rifles all with the same factory stamp may have barrels and bolts from half a dozen sub-factories. I see this now when I examine a few dozen rifles with the same factory stamp, where many of the individual parts have different markings.

So is one factory stamped rifle better than the next? I no longer think so.
 
The info in the first post detailing the information stamped on the side of the crate, compared to the serial numbers on the guns, in conjunction with the information already known about the Type 56 already would seem to indicate that the research is sound.

Parts might be made all over the place, but there is nothing to say that the stamping would happen other than during assembly of the complete gun. Parts might be made all over, but assembly is done in one specific plant per gun. Parts from many factories, shipped to and assembled in one specific factory.
 
Bingo


The info in the first post detailing the information stamped on the side of the crate, compared to the serial numbers on the guns, in conjunction with the information already known about the Type 56 already would seem to indicate that the research is sound.

Parts might be made all over the place, but there is nothing to say that the stamping would happen other than during assembly of the complete gun. Parts might be made all over, but assembly is done in one specific plant per gun. Parts from many factories, shipped to and assembled in one specific factory.
 
I don't care they used them on a forum I've never heard of. Some of those pics have been included in printed publications where the source was acknowledged so I'm perfectly willing to share the history.

It's the "without credit" part that irks me. I guess it's a big fat watermark through the center of the pic from now on.

My apologies. This one falls on me, I guess I must have gotten lazy. I typically ask for permission and issue credit to the owner of photos when I'm able to easily track them down like was done in my SKS survey. This particular post was just meant to be a very minor reply adding a single piece of evidence to the When was my Chinese SKS made? thread. I wasn't so much interested in the ammo photos except for the fact that they showed that the crate markings had lot, year, and arsenal information on them that could indeed be quickly deciphered. It's pretty common knowledge out there what the markings indicate, but a nice, easy to follow visual walk-thru always helps to get everyone to the same page more quickly.

I will pull your photos out of the post if you wish, or I can watermark and/or cite them with whatever name you want. (I got them directly from a Google image search for "Chinese Ammo Crates", there are surprisingly not too many out there showing what I was specifically interested in.) Just let me know what you want, and I'll gladly do it.

-RM
 
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