Quote Originally Posted by Boris Badinov View Post
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.
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 Yugoicon 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.