Mumbles Marble Mouth
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Lower Mainland
I'm making this post late at night so that you guys can see it though out the day tomorrow while I'm at work so I can view replies at what people think about this Type 56 SKS. To be honest, I'm unsure if this is even a military Type 56. My little knowledge about Type 56 SKS tells me it could be but also tells me it might not be. So, I want to see what you guys think. This is one of the remaining Type 56 SKS from Frontier Firearms.

So the gun arrived two days passed the expected delivery date but that is the usual with things being sent to Vancouver Island. Canada Post for some reason will send your package from Richmond to Victoria, and then from Victoria back to Richmond, and then Richmond to Nanaimo and to where I am on the Island. Makes no sense but that's the way the do it. The box looks like either someone was interested as to what was in the box, or transit damage. It says Frontier Taxidermy on the box so maybe someone though there was a dead animal inside. Just joking but its fun to imagine how that happened.

So the gun is coated in oil. Not cosmoline as I have seen some people say. Its like the same oil that the M305 came packed in or even my T97 came packed in. There is cosmoline under the bolt carrier and inside the gas tube so I wouldn't fire this gun out of the box. Also, my firing pin channel is loaded with cosmoline. Will have to remove the firing pin and clean that out another time.

So this was upon first inspection. I noticed the gun has no Chinese characters, is ####ing made by Zelda! check that #### out. SKS of time #####es! Just kidding. Its Factory 0306. However, this seems to me like a commercial serial number. I read a little bit on it and a number like 5-1608blahblah with 7 digits is a sign of an SKS made for commercial use. However, I also did read that not every factory followed the same serial number as other factories did. Some didn't even put the Chinese Characters on it. So from my guns serial number, its either made in 2005 or made in 1972. The first thing I decided to check was if the barrel is pinned on or not. Its its pinned, its an 05. If its not, its 70's production.

Here is just a picture of the new Type 56 with my Russian SKS.

Piston does look like its never seen use.

Cosmoline under the bolt carrier.
I'm surprised at how much stuff on these Chinese SKS is stamped. This was also a clue to me that it may be commercial made SKS although I know that sometime in 1967 or maybe a bit sooner the Chinese switched to a stamped trigger guard and other parts. Here are a few pictures of things I noticed were stamped.




Now in the photo above, I was trying to take a picture of what I thought was a pin. I was actually getting pissed off at this point as I was really starting to think this is a commercial Type 56. However, once I cleaned off the oil in that spot, it turns out to be a 5 and not a pin.

and here is the rear sight. I thought the military ones didn't have a 300 meter. That the D was the 300 meter so they just skipped it. I could be wrong though. So what do you guys think? Is it military or commercial? This is also a look see at the Type 56 SKS that Frontier is selling so thoughts of you who are thinking of buying can see what you will probably get. I do like that the gun indeed looks un-issued. Not a scratch on it and the thing was difficult to take a part from parts not being broken in yet. One other thing I was told is that a commercial SKS will not have a factory code on it but this one had Zelda on it... I mean factory 0306.
Anyways, any comments that will help me decide if this is military or commercial is greatly appreciated.

So the gun arrived two days passed the expected delivery date but that is the usual with things being sent to Vancouver Island. Canada Post for some reason will send your package from Richmond to Victoria, and then from Victoria back to Richmond, and then Richmond to Nanaimo and to where I am on the Island. Makes no sense but that's the way the do it. The box looks like either someone was interested as to what was in the box, or transit damage. It says Frontier Taxidermy on the box so maybe someone though there was a dead animal inside. Just joking but its fun to imagine how that happened.

So the gun is coated in oil. Not cosmoline as I have seen some people say. Its like the same oil that the M305 came packed in or even my T97 came packed in. There is cosmoline under the bolt carrier and inside the gas tube so I wouldn't fire this gun out of the box. Also, my firing pin channel is loaded with cosmoline. Will have to remove the firing pin and clean that out another time.

So this was upon first inspection. I noticed the gun has no Chinese characters, is ####ing made by Zelda! check that #### out. SKS of time #####es! Just kidding. Its Factory 0306. However, this seems to me like a commercial serial number. I read a little bit on it and a number like 5-1608blahblah with 7 digits is a sign of an SKS made for commercial use. However, I also did read that not every factory followed the same serial number as other factories did. Some didn't even put the Chinese Characters on it. So from my guns serial number, its either made in 2005 or made in 1972. The first thing I decided to check was if the barrel is pinned on or not. Its its pinned, its an 05. If its not, its 70's production.

Here is just a picture of the new Type 56 with my Russian SKS.

Piston does look like its never seen use.

Cosmoline under the bolt carrier.
I'm surprised at how much stuff on these Chinese SKS is stamped. This was also a clue to me that it may be commercial made SKS although I know that sometime in 1967 or maybe a bit sooner the Chinese switched to a stamped trigger guard and other parts. Here are a few pictures of things I noticed were stamped.




Now in the photo above, I was trying to take a picture of what I thought was a pin. I was actually getting pissed off at this point as I was really starting to think this is a commercial Type 56. However, once I cleaned off the oil in that spot, it turns out to be a 5 and not a pin.

and here is the rear sight. I thought the military ones didn't have a 300 meter. That the D was the 300 meter so they just skipped it. I could be wrong though. So what do you guys think? Is it military or commercial? This is also a look see at the Type 56 SKS that Frontier is selling so thoughts of you who are thinking of buying can see what you will probably get. I do like that the gun indeed looks un-issued. Not a scratch on it and the thing was difficult to take a part from parts not being broken in yet. One other thing I was told is that a commercial SKS will not have a factory code on it but this one had Zelda on it... I mean factory 0306.
Anyways, any comments that will help me decide if this is military or commercial is greatly appreciated.
































































