The Type 56 Carbine (not to be confused with the Type 56 assault rifle) is the Chinese version of the SKS. In Chinese, it is named Type 56 Semi-Automatic Rifle (Chinese: 56式半自动步枪). The rifle is manufactured by a wide variety of Chinese state factories; the primary manufacturer is Factory 296, now known as Chongqing Jianshe Group.
Early Type 56 rifles are very similar to the Russian SKS-45, with a milled trigger group, blade bayonet, and long lug threaded barrel. Later Type 56s have a stamped sheet metal trigger group, short lug threaded or pressed and pinned barrel and a spike bayonet (a.k.a. a “pig sticker”) much like the Type 56 assault rifle. The later versions, like many imported SKS rifles, have the infamous ‘orange cratewood’ stocks, probably the lowest quality wood in any mass produced rifle, save for the last ditch Arisaka Type 99 rifles at the end of WW2. Many SKS rifles during the Vietnam War were issued with reddish plastic stocks, because of the incidents of ‘wood rot’ in the humid SE Asian jungles.
The Russian SKS has a milled receiver and a blade bayonet. The rifles were issued with hardwood or laminated stocks.
The OP-SKS is a Russian civilian variant of the SKS converted into hunting rifles. OP stands for охотничье-промысловый, okhotnich’ye promyslovyy, meaning “commercial hunting”. They feature a prefitted dovetail mount for scopes.
Specifications
(1945 – Present)
- Type: Rifle
- Caliber: 7.62x39mm
- Weight: 8.5 lbs (3.9 kg)
- Length: 40.2 in (102.1 cm)
- Barrel length: 20.5 in (52.1 cm)
- Muzzle velocity: 2,411 ft/s (735 m/s)
- Capacity: 10-round fixed magazine. Norinco export SKS models tend to be able to use detachable AK magazines, and other detachable aftermarket magazines of various capacities exist.
- Fire Modes: Semi-Auto
