My Worse CHICOM SKS purchase ever.

Back in April 2020, I fell for Classic Firearms AD and sent them the money for a Chinese SKS Type 56 Rifle - Original Military Turn In Rifles. 7.62x39 Semi-Auto W /Spike Bayonet. All totaled with tax and shipping $401.77

This is the WORSE firearm I have ever purchased from an online store nowhere near worth the money. Well, I have purchased rifles in worse condition, but I knew what I was buying, and they were priced accordingly.

What Classic advertised in their AD is deceiving painting the rifles in a positive light and bending the limits of acceptable percentages.

“The same goes for the bluing, however, to a far lesser extent. We have seen some guns with excessive bluing wear, but I would say that is the exception as most of these guns are running 80% plus in the blued department, with many being closer to 100%.”

If “most” and “closer” were a fact, then the rifle I got was that exception because the blue on the SKS I received was 10% and that 10% is under the wood as most of the firearm is in the white near to no blue at all. Add that to the stock being garbage, which was expected, with names and words carved or impressed to it, the resale value of this rifle is between $200.00 and $250.00, and that is ONLY because it does have matching numbers. So the way I look at it, I took a loss of $90.00 to $140.00 on this deal and would not be able to sell the SKS for the price I bought it.

I’m so disgusted with this buy that the SKS is still in the bubble wrap and box, in its cosmoline. If the outside if this SKS is any indicator, the inside of this rifle is going to be poor.

I bought this SKS from Classic because my prior purchase of a Romanian Tokarev pistol was fantastic. It was in excellent condition and met the AD’s description.

Will I buy from Classic Firearms Again? Well, that’s the question, I don’t necessarily trust what they write in their AD’s anymore. This is one of the reasons I have not bought one of their Italian M91 Carcano Cavalry Carbine they have right now, and I’m trying not to buy another rifle I don’t need. Had I a good experience with the SKS, my guess is I would have purchased the Carcano. Fool me once shame on them, fool me twice shame on me.

I’ll clean it up once I decide if I will reblued or parkerize this rifle, gotta do something or it's going to just sit here in the cosmoline.

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I have a bit of a soft spot for beat up guns like this one. Show me a Winchester model 12 worn white around the balance point and I'm in love!
This one carries a lot of appeal for me.

That said...their ad does indeed sound deceptive and I wouldn't have been happy either. I can't recall ever having purchased from Classic. I've seen a couple of their "uncrating" videos and I did not get a warm fuzzy feeling from the presenters. Couldn't tell ya why...I just dont.

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Originally Posted by rcathey

Show me a Winchester model 12 worn white around the balance point and I'm in love!

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I'd take a Win 12 in ANY condition. But a Chinese SKS is far from a Win 12 LOL. I would not have a problem with this SKS had Classic firearms been totally upfront on the actual condition of the rifles. Palmetto State Armory was selling these rifles at the same time for near the same price, I'm sure from the same source BUT they did not sugar coat their description like Classic did. I should have known better, I fell for Classics magic smoke and mirrors. Live and learn.

I guess the fact that I purchased a Chinese SKS online from another vendor at the four days earlier, was better than described in their listing and I paid only $350.00, with shipping and NO tax $380.00 out the door. It makes what Classic sent me to look even worse lol. But then I buy a lot for this vendor and trust their descriptions.

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I will never purchase anything from them ever again. I purchased one of their $239 91/30's. They said it had a small amount of rust on the bolt. When it came in, it was a complete rust bucket. I'm ok with wear and tear (thats called "character" here), but rust throughout the gun was ridiculous. I sent them an email with pictures and they replied that they stood by their assessment. In have a feeling all of the good surplus has already been found and sent out. What they are getting now is the junk that failed the first 2 to 3 rounds of sales. FYI, I had that 91/30 bead blasted then painted with duracoat since I wasn't going to pay $300 to reblue a $239 gun. It turned out alright and functioned really well when it was done.
I sold it a few weeks ago for $175 which I put towards a 1934 Izhvesk with a 3-digit serial number. I'm done with Classic.

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Originally Posted by Singer B

They said it had a small amount of rust on the bolt. When it came in, it was a complete rust bucket. I'm ok with wear and tear (thats called "character" here), but rust throughout the gun was ridiculous. I sent them an email with pictures and they replied that they stood by their assessment. ... I had that 91/30 bead blasted then painted with duracoat since I wasn't going to pay $300 to reblue a $239 gun. It turned out alright and functioned really well when it was done. I sold it a few weeks ago for $175 which I put towards a 1934 Izhvesk with a 3-digit serial number. I'm done with Classic.

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Your experience seems to be the 'NORMAL' when it comes to Classic, quite a few of their review echo what you and I have found. I once had a boss that asked me to lie about an installation we were doing on a ship and I told him that I would not lie, that if asked I would tell the truth. He told me; "Its not a lie, its an elaboration of the truth". Sounds like he might have a career at Classic should he get a job there.

I'm thinking of refinishing the rifle with a black manganese parkerizing, just don't like to fire up my parkerizing tank unless I have a bunch of things to parkerize, which I don't right now. Even though you can reuse the parkerizing solution, the results are not always optimum.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

Your experience seems to be the 'NORMAL' when it comes to Classic, quite a few of their review echo what you and I have found. I once had a boss that asked me to lie about an installation we were doing on a ship and I told him that I would not lie, that if asked I would tell the truth. He told me; "Its not a lie, its an elaboration of the truth". Sounds like he might have a career at Classic should he get a job there.

I'm thinking of refinishing the rifle with a black manganese parkerizing, just don't like to fire up my parkerizing tank unless I have a bunch of things to parkerize, which I don't right now. Even though you can reuse the parkerizing solution, the results are not always optimum.

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Sounds like that "lemon" is going to become a "diamond." At least you know you can't make it any worse and you get to customize it any way you want.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

I’m so disgusted with this buy that the SKS is still in the bubble wrap and box, in its cosmoline. If the outside if this SKS is any indicator, the inside of this rifle is going to be poor.

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Hey Bill, I going the other way with the interior...I had a vet bringback from RVN show up that looked like hammered crap but the bore and interior and all the gas affected areas were about perfect because of the chrome. I'm going to hope when you strip the grease you'll find clean sharp rifling and your park tank will return it to perfect, stock be dammed... You can get new stocking for it...

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

I had a vet bring back from RVN show up that looked like hammered crap but the bore and interior and all the gas affected areas were about perfect because of the chrome. I'm going to hope when you strip the grease you'll find clean sharp rifling and your park tank will return it to perfect, stock b e dammed... You can get new stocking for it...

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I really hope you are right, I'd love to have one I don't mind shooting a lot. Still trying to decide if parkerizing is the right route, it would look nice but something about a rust blue is just so nice why more work though.

The handguard is done but stock is salvageable less the impressed names or words whatever they are. I do find it strange that its English letters when these are supposed to me surplus Chinese Army rifles Quoting Classic Firearms "These are all very early rifles - i.e. Pre Vietnam to Early Vietnam Era rifles which probably saw use in that conflict". I did win a Chinese stock on a
Proxibid auction for 17.00 + 18% fee only bid on it because I was bidding on some US Government .22 ammo. so I guess I could use that as well

you need to remember, classic and even jg have been pointed out for selling guns as "good to very good condition" that have split barrels, bulged barrels, split and bulged recievers when they arrive at the end customer.

I suppose you could boil the stock on the Classic SKS, it's like steaming dents without the time investment. Worst case it warps slightly and you could give it a Viking funeral since you have another, best case your have a clean slate to work from.

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Originally Posted by AFJon

I suppose you could boil the stock on the Classic SKS, it's like steaming dents without the time investment.

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No need to boil to get that kind of result. A long... long... time ago... in a gallery far far away I built a steamer that puts out a good amount of pressure through its nozzle. The end of the nozzle being rubber allows me to press it against the wood to help it penetrate the wood fibers. Makes short work in lifting dents AND removing oils, paints, and even cosmoline however, I only use it on the worst cases and waring lots of PPE, steam is no joke.

There is a gun shop close to home which sells SKS, Chinese production, with the bladed bayonet and in embarassingly good conditions for 350€.
If I only liked semiautos...
I confess that I offered my StGew57 for trade with a good bolt action rifle. Hoping to get the deal done...

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Originally Posted by Ovidio

There is a gun shop close to home which sells SKS, Chinese production, with the bladed bayonet

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The Chinese Bladed SKS is somewhat rare here, at least in California. I just recently got one and it's beautiful and has mostly milled components. SkS rifles are fun and cheap to shoot, you would give one a try.

What is a bit confusing about this rifle is that the graffiti on the stock seems to be in a western character set. If these are truly from the Chinese Army I would expect this to have Chinese character set graffiti.

Makes you wonder if these actually were Chinese surplus or surplus from another country where the Chinese supplied the rifles.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

The Chinese Bladed SKS is somewhat rare here, at least in California. I just recently got one and it's beautiful and has mostly milled components. SkS rifles are fun and cheap to shoot, you would give one a try.

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Mine has the spike. The Chinese guns work great but after working on Russian and Yugoslavian SKS's, it is my opinion they are of better quality than the Chinese version. My Chinese SKS is really fun to shoot and i haven't had a single problem with it other than the ugly orange hued color of the stock.

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Originally Posted by Singer B

The Chinese guns work great but after working on Russian and Yugoslavian SKS's, it is my opinion they are of better quality than the Chinese version

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That is absolutely true for the most part. Early Chinese SKS rifles produced under Russian supervision were just as good as their Russian counterparts. From all the Chinese Blade SKS rifles I have seen, look to be better in quality of manufacturing than the Spike as well.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

the graffiti on the stock seems to be in a western character set.

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Yugo maybe? Before they started making their own...maybe?

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Originally Posted by browningautorifle

Yugo maybe? Before they started making their own...maybe?

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maybe, but I think it would be in Cyrillic

Send it back. I've heard they take returns. I wouldn't mess with it.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

I think it would be in Cyrillic

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Depends on which, Serb looks like Russian and Croat looks like German...

Little correction: the rifles are Tula, not Chinese.
That would fit me much better!!!

These rifles are returns from Vietnam I had about 50 of them from the whole sale who shipped them to main brokers. One they were degreased there was potential to make up a nice shooter grade rifle. Yes the stocks are really bad on some, with some broken in half. Lots of rusty trigger guards an magazine boxs. I buy lots of the stuff the main company's don't want. Using them for my parts sales. But found out alot of them can be refinished with some elbow grease.

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Originally Posted by mmppres

These rifles are returns from Vietnam

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AH! now that ties it together and would explain he graffiti in what looks to be a western character set, it's French Vietnamese. I'm going to send the pictures of the writing it to one of my Vietnamese friends to see if it makes any sense. Would you know if they went back to China first or come from Vietnam? Thank you for the info.

Do you have stocks for these? my buddy is looking for one, he has one of the broken in half ones.

I think these were put in storage in lots of 100. Came thru China. Not sure if sold that way or not. Does he want an orginal needing repair or replacement

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Originally Posted by mmppres

I think these were put in storage in lots of 100. Came thru China. Not sure if sold that way or not.

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Must have been sitting in a country other than China since there are laws preventing the importation of military firearms and parts from China. Would be interesting to find out.

Thank you

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Originally Posted by usabaker

What is a bit confusing about this rifle is that the graffiti on the stock seems to be in a western character set. If these are truly from the Chinese Army I would expect this to have Chinese character set graffiti.

Makes you wonder if these actually were Chinese surplus or surplus from another country where the Chinese supplied the rifles.

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The Chinese sks imports to the US from 2012 and onward are from Albania. China began supplying Albania with economic and military aid in the late 1950's when Peking and Tirana were on the outs with Moscow.

The OP's rifle has the PW Arms import stamp which identifies it as a US import from the Albanian stockpiles.

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Originally Posted by mmppres

These rifles are returns from Vietnam I had about 50 of them from the whole sale who shipped them to main brokers. One they were degreased there was potential to make up a nice shooter grade rifle. Yes the stocks are really bad on some, with some broken in half. Lots of rusty trigger guards an magazine boxs. I buy lots of the stuff the main company's don't want. Using them for my parts sales. But found out alot of them can be refinished with some elbow grease.

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Not from Vietnam. From Albania. This has been pretty well known, and documented since the first imports in 2012.

Firearms researcher and author, Steve Kehaya, went to Albania working for Century Arms Importers in 2010-2011 to begin the selection of early bladed carbines for the first US shipments. He's a member at gunboards.com forum, where he has described in great detail and with photos his experiences finding and selecting the Chinese Type56's from the Albanian military stockpiles.

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Originally Posted by Boris Badinov

Not from Vietnam. From Albania. This has been pretty well known, and documented since the first imports in 2012.

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Perfect! On one side of the stock is the words TEPELENE when I put this into Goggle as Albania TEPELENE, it brings up Wikipedia as the first listing "Tepelenë (definite Albanian form: Tepelena) is a city and a municipality in Gjirokastër County, in the south of Albania. "

I found an interesting bit of history on the SKS and Albania on the MDSHOOTER forum here -> https://www.mdshooters.com/showthread.php?t=98467 that shed a bit of light on it.

With this information, now I'm torn on changing the stock on this rifle.

Thank you Boris

Jim, looks like you almost hit home with your guess on where it was from.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

Jim, looks like you almost hit home with your guess on where it was from.

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Pretty close, yes...

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Originally Posted by Boris Badinov

Not from Vietnam. From Albania. This has been pretty well known, and documented since the first imports in 2012.

Firearms researcher and author, Steve Kehaya, went to Albania working for Century Arms Importers in 2010-2011 to begin the selection of early bladed carbines for the first US shipments. He's a member at gunboards.com forum, where he has described in great detail and with photos his experiences finding and selecting the Chinese Type56's from the Albanian military stockpiles.

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Thank you sir! Definitely learned something today!!

Usabaker, if you get her cleaned up you'll be able to get your money back (and possibly more), if you sell locally in California.

400 for an SKS is the extreme low end of the sks price range in Covid Cali.

If you wait til November it could fetch even more money.

It may not be the prettiest carbine, but the ugly ones commonly are perfectly functioning rifles beneath all the grime.

I prefer the "been there, done that" look for my milsurps. I'd clean it and shoot it first.
RE: CF's customer service. Just played that game with the Type 54 Tok's they just got in. The one they sent me doubled 3 times with the first mag load. Emailed them and had a return label in my inbox an hour later. Maybe they felt bad as the replacement was in much nicer condition.

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Originally Posted by TankerDon

RE: CF's customer service. Just played that game with the Type 54 Tok's they just got in. The one they sent me doubled 3 times with the first mag load. Emailed them and had a return label in my inbox an hour later. Maybe they felt bad as the replacement was in much nicer condition.

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You are lucky, They did not even respond to me.

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Originally Posted by Boris Badinov

Usabaker, if you get her cleaned up you'll be able to get your money back (and possibly more), if you sell locally in California.

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Hi Boris, Thanks to you I now know the story behind these rifles and have decided to keep it only cleaning it up, maybe a rust blue. Prior to finding out the history, I was going to parkerize it, now that's off the table. I understand what you are saying about the value in Californa (I saw a kid pay 1200.00 for a beat-up Yugo SKS two months ago,) but as far as on-line ordering goes, it still was not worth what I paid.

I found this information which matches the info you gave me.

"Surplus Chinese Type 56 SKS Rifle 7.62×30. These are Vietnam era Chinese Military rifles made by Jianshe Arsenal AKA “Factory 26”. These rifles are currently banned from importation by the US government, but this lot of SKS’s was granted a waiver because they spent the last 20 years in Albania. These rifles came out of Albania, and 20 years ago would put them in that part of the world for the Kosovo war. According to some research the Kosovo Liberation Army received and used arms from China, and the Type 56 SKS was one of the weapons they used. There is trench art and writing on some of these rifles that it is written using the latin alphabet, not Chinese characters."

Thank you again Boris for all the information.

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Originally Posted by usabaker

These rifles came out of Albania, and 20 years ago would put them in that part of the world for the Kosovo war. According to some research the Kosovo Liberation Army received and used arms from China, and the Type 56 SKS was one of the weapons they used.

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See, my battalion was posted there through the winter of '92. These were classic of what we were seizing and finding. That was before they started making their own...so we saw lots.

I was able to contact the Importer and they confirmed that these rifles came form Albania.

Classic Firearms Field Grade.
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Originally Posted by fleetwrench

Classic Firearms Field Grade.
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You forgot the guy spraying them with a fire hose and the other guy throwing salt on them......

Found another batch of these Albanian Chinese Type 56 SKS's for sale here in California and Arizona. They are selling them for $500.00! holy molly ... One of the guys I work with at the range work there and is going to check out the condition of the rifles they have. If they have one in Vary Good or better condition its going to be hard to say no.

Just got a email for J&G Sales. They are selling the rifles now too but THEY are being HONEST about the condition unlike Classic;

J&G Says "Functional working rifles, but the bluing may be worn almost away and it will have some areas of corrosion and /or pitting, the stock and handguard show many dings and scratches and large cracks (not returnable for cracks)" BUT WOW THE PRICE! $479.99

https://www.jgsales.com/chinese-sks-...-p-104086.html

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