In what year were the first Soviet SKS imports to Canada?

[Lee Enfield]

The U.S. already had a lot of Russian SKS's that were Vietnam War bring-backs during the 60's and early 70's. (F/A AK's were banned.)

I don't know when they started being imported to the U.S. or Canada, but I bought one in 1993 that was already used.

It shot minute-of-pie plate, so I got rid of it pretty fast.

There was a lot of ComBloc stuff floating around back then.

It would have been nice to have had a lot of money and to know what to buy.

IIRC, the first Chinese imports of SKS's and semi-auto AK's into the States were back in 1983.

I recently read a US Military intelligence report circa 1962ish. From reading it the eastern block was treating all of the 7.62x39 small arms as state secrets at that point.

fired brass was being policed up from firing points, and live ammo and photos of small arms had a bounty attached to them.

I was surprised at how little knowledge of the capabilities and specific info was available at that (late date after adoption) time.


a friend of mine has an SKS with the South Vietnamese & US military capture papers, but I don't remember what year they are.


Circa 1994, a Chinese SKS was $89, and a Chinese SKS with a 1440rd case of ammo was $130...

 

[MapleSugar]

I was sitting in a classroom and the news came over the intercom speaker, each classroom had on the wall. It was a very modern school by the early 60s standards.

I'm old, but not that old. I first started working for Mr Lever when I was 14 years old In 1965

Today, many people don't realize that Lever Arms wasn't just a "local gun shop"

Mr Lever had contacts all over the world and was a major importer of all sorts of things.

His shop on Dunsmuir Street had enough sailing ship supplies to outfit a three masted schooner. Everything from sails, rope, deck planking, hurricane lamps, square nails and even bow figures. There were all sorts of other antiquities there as well.

He bought huge quantities of stuff. He was never one to turn down a profit, if he saw something that would sell reasonably quickly.

Lots of things he brought in, never were removed from their shipping crates. Back then, metal sea cans were still 20 years in the future. Everything was packed in large/expensive wooden crates and the shipper paid by where in the ship the cargo was going to be stored. Below decks or on the deck. You wrapped your container accordingly, usually with very expensive waxed canvas or sometimes heavily waxed cardboard.

We often forwarded firearms and some other things across Canada to Halifax, where it would be put on a ship and sent to the UK for mandator trade inspections and subsequent approval. Often, the cost of shipping both ways tripled the cost of the items.

Mr Lever hated the strangle hold the UK had on some items, with the requirement that some things always had to be approved by them first when it concerned the "Colonies" trade.

I would hate that, too.

The UK was just a large octopus stretching it's tentacles around the world and dragging everything back to it's mouth to be devoured.

I just love reading your stories. The things that you saw when you were organizing Alan Lever's storeroom would make most of us drool with envy.

BTW, Your schoolroom was probably very similar to the ones I was in during my school years.

 

[MapleSugar]

I recently read a US Military intelligence report circa 1962ish. From reading it the eastern block was treating all of the 7.62x39 small arms as state secrets at that point.

fired brass was being policed up from firing points, and live ammo and photos of small arms had a bounty attached to them.

I was surprised at how little knowledge of the capabilities and specific info was available at that (late date after adoption) time.


a friend of mine has an SKS with the South Vietnamese & US military capture papers, but I don't remember what year they are.


Circa 1994, a Chinese SKS was $89, and a Chinese SKS with a 1440rd case of ammo was $130...

I've heard that, too.

Were those Chinese SKS's the civilian models, or the military surplus ones?

In 2006, the mint-condition, milsurp SKS's were $149.00 at Lever Arms and a 1120 round case of Czech surplus 7.62x39mm (on stripper clips) was $159.00.

 

[Lee Enfield]

I've heard that, too.

Were those Chinese SKS's the civilian models, or the military surplus ones?

In 2006, the mint-condition, milsurp SKS's were $149.00 at Lever Arms and a 1120 round case of Czech surplus 7.62x39mm (on stripper clips) was $159.00.

I've been kicking myself since for only buying 1

In retrospect the pricing was probably because George Bush banned Chinese guns and ammo from import after Norinco got caught smuggling type 56 AK47s, PH clone bipods and other items (armoured vehicles too IIRC) into the US.

It's a great story (which is documented in court transcripts by the way) - Norinco deliberately attempted to arm gangs in LA and GHWB banned the import of Chinese arms in retalliation.

What do you mean "civilian model"? They were new in the crate - later (1996ish) there were Chinese SKS's in cardboard boxes.

My buddy paid about $500 for a Russian SKS in about '88... he was pretty bitter a few years later.

 

[Chas]

Lever used to sell the "Family Packs" of SKS's. If you bought a pack like I did it came out to around $99 each rifle.

Still kicking myself for selling them all...

Hah - I remember these - I ended up buying 7 packs for coworkers and they were all over the bush around an unnamed northern Ontario town I lived in at the time/

 

[greatwhite]

I paid 170.00 bucks for a Russian SKS in 2010 in Ottawa

 

[canuck]

Circa 1994, a Chinese SKS was $89, and a Chinese SKS with a 1440rd case of ammo was $130...

I remember paying 75 bucks a piece for Chinese "Condition: Good" around that time - wish I could have afforded all the other goodies that were on the market then
Brand new Norincos were $99 IIRC

 

[haaguen]

Man these prices are depressing to see in 2022. Still pretty cool thanks for sharing.

 

[Chingas]

Man these prices are depressing to see in 2022. Still pretty cool thanks for sharing.

Looking at that old catalogue a couple of pages back a new Norinco AK was $450 in 1991. Fast forward 30 years and a brand new Type 81 is $1200. Looking at it that way makes me feel as the type 81 is fairly reasonable.

 

[Chingas]

I was sitting in a classroom and the news came over the intercom speaker, each classroom had on the wall. It was a very modern school by the early 60s standards.

I'm old, but not that old. I first started working for Mr Lever when I was 14 years old In 1965

Today, many people don't realize that Lever Arms wasn't just a "local gun shop"

Mr Lever had contacts all over the world and was a major importer of all sorts of things.

His shop on Dunsmuir Street had enough sailing ship supplies to outfit a three masted schooner. Everything from sails, rope, deck planking, hurricane lamps, square nails and even bow figures. There were all sorts of other antiquities there as well.

He bought huge quantities of stuff. He was never one to turn down a profit, if he saw something that would sell reasonably quickly.

Lots of things he brought in, never were removed from their shipping crates. Back then, metal sea cans were still 20 years in the future. Everything was packed in large/expensive wooden crates and the shipper paid by where in the ship the cargo was going to be stored. Below decks or on the deck. You wrapped your container accordingly, usually with very expensive waxed canvas or sometimes heavily waxed cardboard.

We often forwarded firearms and some other things across Canada to Halifax, where it would be put on a ship and sent to the UK for mandator trade inspections and subsequent approval. Often, the cost of shipping both ways tripled the cost of the items.

Mr Lever hated the strangle hold the UK had on some items, with the requirement that some things always had to be approved by them first when it concerned the "Colonies" trade.

This is fascinating stuff. Sounds like Mr Lever should have a movie made about him. Thanks for sharing your stories. Any more would be great to read as well.

 

[anglia2]

I bought my first SKS ( Chinese ) in 1980 . I picked up a Russian a few years later , they were not common at the time . The biggest problem back then was finding ammo , it was scarce and , if you could find it , expensive . I paid about $ 250 for the Chinese SKS and about $ 300 for the Russian . To put that into perspective , I bought high condition Garands for about $ 150 and L1A1 FALs for about the same . I paid about $ 400 for a Stirling AR 180 at the time as well . It's only been since the mass imports of later Russian and Chinese rifles that SKSs were seen as cheap rifles , they were inexpensive for a while , but , aside from later commercial chinese rifles , never cheaply built . Like all milsurps , the days of low priced SKSs are over . I should have kept mine . I did keep an FR8 though , I paid $ 75 for that lol , times have changed .

AB