Dating a Chinese SKS

[sandstorm]

Thanks I didnt see that page....My gun is a late production.....are there any ideas as to what date ranges are with the production era?

How can I tell if this is a military or civilian gun?

so your sks has a pinned barrel???? it would be too difficult to give you a range date bcos china never divulge those info.

what i could tell you is yours is definitely military. some of the signs are the triangle in the factory code and the serial number on the side of the stock.

[Bulls-I_24]

So if there is no number on the stock it is probably commercial?
Where there only certain variations they made commercial or pretty much all variants come in either military or commercial?

And yes it is a pinned barrel, are there any other features to look for that says its military?

[Claven2]

Not all military guns will have numbered stocks. Many of the early factory 26 guns with blade bayonets were imported to the US/Canada in the 1990's and a good many of those were reconditioned somewhat in the PRC before coming over. Worn/damaged stocks were sometimes replaced with new production wood (no serial number and blonder than typical military stocks) and items like the gas tube were replaced if the originals were badly pitted, etc. Often the guns were also reblued. Think of it as arsenal refurbishment as this work was all done in military factories.

Also, what we think of as "commercial production" is just guns assembled from military production spare parts for sale in the states. The Chinese had stopped SKS production at a number of factories and their vast stocks of replacement parts were hastily assembled in a variety of commercial configurations for the civilian market so that some use cold be made of these orphaned spares.

[sandstorm]

Not all military guns will have numbered stocks. Many of the early factory 26 guns with blade bayonets were imported to the US/Canada in the 1990's and a good many of those were reconditioned somewhat in the PRC before coming over.

im not talking about refurbs , my research shows that all standard factory 26 originally came with serial number on the stock.