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Yooper John's SKS - Battle rifle of many nations

SECTION  32:  In this section I will try to show the s/n range of the SKS of produced at the Jianshe Arsenal  The only purpose of this page is to help make the collector aware that differences do occur and about anything could be possible. These are ALL from my personal observations and not from any books.

I will start of by showing the different s/n year range for the Jianshe Arsenal 296 designated by the arsenal marking 26 within a triangle /26\.  The factory 26 stamp was first applied to the receiver to the rear (right) of the serial number from 1956 to 1959 for sure and possibly to 1961.  At that time the position of the applied markings changed.  On the left side of the receiver we found the Arsenal marking on the forward (left) followed by the newly applied Chinese Characters what translate to "Type 56" and then on the rearward position (right) the serial number.   A theory that seems fairly logical is that the production in other factories began in 1972 when we no longer found any factory 26 rifles (15 million series).  This is based on the preceding and also by the characteristics of the other arsenal made guns.

1956 Sino-Soviet w/o factory 26 stamping                                                     1956 Sino-Soviet with factory 26 stamping to the right of the s/n

5 digit 1956  w/o factory 26 stamping visible note 9 is spaced different        6 digit 1956 with factory 26 visible

This picture shows an early factory 26 feature gun with wrong placement of arsenal code and Chinese Characters according to the serial number.  This would be one from 1960 or later.  We have found NO 4 million or 5 million series 26 guns.  Maybe this is a 1960 made gun, not sure.  Any ideas??

This is another strange one from Justin M.  Where does this fit into the dating scheme?  It shows 6 digits but the /26\ and Chinese Characters are before the s/n??  1960 made gun?

Here we have 1 million series marked guns, BUT, the arsenal code and Chinese Characters are in the wrong place.  Could these be 1961 guns?  Still looking for the correctly marked 1 million series gun!!

we need a 1 million series 1957                                                                            2 million series 1958 factory 26

3 million series 1959 factory 26                                                                    we need a 4 million series 1960 (See 6 digit s/n guns below)

This picture shows an early factory 26 feature gun with wrong placement of arsenal code and Chinese Characters according to the serial number.  This would be one from 1960 or later.  We have found NO 4 million or 5 million series 26 guns.  Maybe this is a 1960 made gun, not sure.  Any ideas??

Here we have 1 million series marked guns, BUT, the arsenal code and Chinese Characters are in the wrong place.  Could these be 1961 guns?  Still looking for the correctly marked 1 million series gun!!

we need a 5 million series 1961 (See above 1 million guns)            6 million series 1962 factory 26 (NOTE position of markings)

7 million series 1963 with Chinese characters and 26 marking        8 million series 1964 with Chinese characters and 26 marking

9 million series 1965 Last year of the Blade bayonet                 10 million series 1966 First year with the Spike Bayonet and short barrel lug

11 million series 1967 with Chinese characters and 26 marking           12 million series 1968 with Chinese characters and 26 marking

 13 million series 1969 with Chinese characters and 26 marking                 14 million series 1970 with Chinese characters and 26 marking

Missing 15 million thru 22 million series, so if you have one, send me a picture like one of the above..........THANKS   email at bottom of page

          23 million series 1979 factory 26                                                                        24 million series 1980 Last known factory 26 year

Go to SKS page 33 more info on the 1949 vs 1953 Russian SKS