The SKS Carbine, 5th Revised and Expanded Edition (For Collectors Only)

A complete analysis of the Communist Bloc's SKS Carbine the first detailed study of this fine, collectible carbine in twenty-five years. Every part analyzed to tell you how to determine its country of origin and whether or not those parts are compatible between SKS carbines of different national manufacturers.

This famed Soviet-designed shoulder arm, which together with the AK-47, armed hundreds of thousands of National Liberation Front fighters from Vietnam to Angola. It was manufactured in six countries and its total production ran into the tens of millions. Since 1986, over 1,000,000 of those Albanian, Russian, East German, Chinese, North Vietnamese, North Korean, Romanian and Yugoslav SKS Carbines were imported into the United States. That vast number not only provides a fertile field for collectors, but helps keep prices low enough to make the SKS carbine a fine plinking and hunting rifle.

The SKS Carbine examines the firearm on a part-by-part basis so that you can determine 1) which parts are original on a particular SKS carbine, 2) in which country they were produced, 3) which of those parts are interchangeable between different manufacturers and which are not, 4) how to read serial numbers to determine date of manufacture and country of origin, and 5) what the inspection markings stamped on metal and wood parts mean.

Since the vast majority of SKS Carbines in the U.S. are military surplus, you will learn how to examine and select a fine, shootable SKS Carbine. You are also provided with complete assembly/disassembly instructions, how to manufacture most parts if you cannot find a commercial source, and ammunition characteristics, and ballistic information.

An expanded list of factory codes for the Chinese SKS carbines has been made available to the authors by collector Howard Bearse. That information and more has also been included in this 5th revised and expanded edition of The SKS Carbine.

K. Stewart;Bookwyrm's review below is not quite correct. The 5th edition has been updated to include information on the Romanian SKS Carbines.