There were 4 guns we need to study how to use them in high school: AK47 (type 2, type 3. AKM, Chinese made, Russian made, home made), SKS (or we call CKC), RPG (or we call B40-B41) RPD (or what we call "súng trung liên") All kid need to learn how to field strip it, clean, how to operate, how to aim, how to shoot while in high school, and later on, college and university. We start to manufacture all the gun since some one found out that most guns supplied by China have to be re-sighted since all the iron sights came with the gun are not straight with the barrel (don't know is that mean they afraid we will use that gun to shoot back them, or just the quality control). Some said we still have tons of CKCs, all type, all sources, stored for future war, enough to arm everyone in the country when the war come. Basically, that was a tactic has been use since French Indochina time: You got one finger ? Good enough, you can shoot. Thanks to Ian, I know what type and what is the history of the AK in my hand. Type 2 is still in service in our army, still shinny :))
@@sritam7244 State requirement: All the citizen must be though how to use fire arm in case of war. Basically, the idea is we have 95 million people, if everyone can shoot the gun, well, we will have an army of 45 million troops to fight.
This give-parts-until-they-can-make-it solutions is really is easy to see in eastern europe. I live in a village but the city 15 KM away has a factory where my grandad was a foreman, he used to take me there and show the huge storage sheds filled to the brim with parts, houndreds of boxes of stocks, barrels, becouse when they could start making their own they found out that their parts were of higher quality but could not send the soviet pieces back so they made cheap hunting rifles out of them.
That is fascinating! The system also lends itself to the very Eastern Bloc concept of controlled centralized production while allowing the propaganda machine to claim record production at one facility and incredibly fast tooling and setup times at the factory where the parts are dumped.
NVA as "nationale volksarmee" is in german... NVA as "north vietnamese army" is english translation... so it is not a fun fact but comparing incomparable
@@M4xFr4gg "Dragon W0LF1 which in English translation means National People’s army." end of citation... for german rifles it will be NPA SKS not NVA SKS if you use english translation for both...
A fellow I used to work with in North Dakota had one of those. He swore it was made in North Vietnam, I told him he was full of shit! He showed it to me, he had captured it in Vietnam in 1966, it was still in the cosmoline brand new, but had all the features of that gun, along with that star with the 1 in it. I wasn't into SKS rifles at the time, but I did talk him out of his bring back Takorav pistol. He said he thought something was wrong with it because it always blew out the cases when he shot it. Well he was shooting 30 luger shells, of course they didn't work. It wasn't a few weeks later he called and wanted his pistol back, by that time I had ordered in 5 boxes of 30 mauser surplus ammo, so I sold him the ammo and traded his gun back for the old .45 M1911 I had traded him. He is gone now, I wonder what his wife did with the guns? Damn agent orange!
My grandpa brought his back from Vietnam, He was a colonel in the field communications and was going to the 101st airborne division, when he and his driver were shot at in the jeep, apparently it went right in-between them and they also heard a 40mm(or something of that nature) firing it towards them. When they arrived back they told the mp to go back and see what happened. Later in the day the MP returned and said they found a body and one gun, that gun was a north Vietnamese SKS, my grandpa was given it as a present from the MP and has kept it until his passing. Now I have it and understand more due to this video and will be registering it with the link!
Kind of amusing how the factory didn't get up and running, with Chinese assistance, until the 'late 1970s'. At which point the Chinese assistance presumably stopped because of the Sino Vietnamese war.
@@demonprinces17 not sure but i got shirts that say made in vietnam on it gotta wonder who really won that war in the long run if they have low tier production/sweat shops making oversized shirts for fat american capitalists
@@tomwalker9971 They gained independence and, when they were ready to enter the free market, a slew of jobs. We lost the shooting war, but a long time afterwards we eventually gained a trading partner and reluctant ally against China. Funny how that all turned out.
@Nhat Do Yeah, I remember reading about it in American newspapers, particularly the part about the Vietnam government looking to let out oil drilling contracts. Funny how that evaporated from the news almost instantly.
I think the reason is that after the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese conflicts, Soviet advisers and aids started to enter Vietnam properly, considering the split during the Communist Bloc at the time.
I knew a guy with one of these. It still had dried up bits of cosmoline on it. He called in an airstrike on a hidden supply dump, and found thousands of SKSs thrown around the blast site.
The History of the Vietnam conflict is always interesting, especially the North Vietnamese perspective, because to them it involves so much more than just war and politics, the story of their logistical development alone could fill a small library. Too bad there are so few detailed sources in western countries.
Some Remington guns are like that, I was able to find out my Browning A5 was made by Remington in the 1940s after the Belgium firearms plant was taken over by the nazis.
Hey Ian, I had sent you an email recently about a rare SKS I have and if you would like to do a video on it. It’s a Yugo 59/66 Bosnian (former) Select Fire rifle used in the Bosnian civil war. Let me know if this is something you would like to do a video on. Thanks!
Anton Chigurh it was a former select fire rifle that was made semi for import by swapping out the trigger group. Stock still has cutouts for selector lever and plate, and the receiver is milled out to accept a high capacity magazine similar to an AK.
RichieB76 thanks! I just sent one via Facebook messenger now. I also reached out through a Patreon message so I’m hoping to at least get a response back.
I bought my first SKS in 1990 for $99. A few months later they were $79 I bought another so I could throw away the first one if it broke. Ammo was $99 for a case of 1440 rounds on stripper clips. Man, did we blow off a lot of ammo.
The 1979 Viet-China conflict is reason enough to understand why Vietnam wanted to manufacture their own weapons ...relations between Mao and Ho Chi Minh were never good and after Mao and Ho's death they got even worse .
That's a great point. Recently found out about their skirmish in the 70s and they kicked china's ass. Gotta give it to the Vietnamese, they're hardcore
Mao and Ho were quite friendly, but Sino-Viet relation is way too complex, and the "expansion" Vietnam policy in the Indo-China came back to haunt them
There's a deeper history of hostility between China and Vietnam than even the Post Vietnam war era, because China ruled the Indochina area, including what is now Vietnam, before the French came to Indochina. During the Vietnam War, US covert operations conducted black propaganda operations that included playing on ancient hostility between China and Vietnam. The Secret Sword of the Patriots League was based around this history, of the 15th century Emperor of Vietnam, Le Loi, who led a rebellion against China and freed Vietnam from Chinese rule.
Vietnam and China have been fighting since like...the Song Dynasty or some shit like that. For that matter I'm pretty sure Cambodia needs to be part of this conversation. Anyone interested in Sino-Viet-Khmer Rhouge / Campuchia road to war ought to read Brother Enemy by Chayan Nanda.
SKS, I have a Russian made SKS ( 1953 ) and really enjoyed it in the past using it for Deer Hunting and target shooting. SKS's are a very interesting rifle, would be excellent to get a East German made one. And the rare also Albanian SKS, saw one a while back on the Cabela's web site.
When I was in VN it was ok with the Army to bring back an SKS. Had to fill out some paperwork mainly saying the weapon wasn't full auto so any AK-47 bring-back was illegal. If only 6,000 were assembled in North Vietnam, the number captured by American forces is probably small. I imagine some SKS rifles were purchased from South Vietnamese Army soldiers who captured them.
My grandfather brought back a north korean SKS. Probably one of the rarest forms. He adnd my uncle didn't believe me and argued they're not north korean... Until I showed them the markings and fact there's very little information about them because they're really rare.
Being an American I do have to admit I love the SKS, in any variety. A type 56 Carbine was my first centerfire rifle, and a Chinese "Paratrooper/Cowboy carbine was my third after a 1979 manufactured Winchester M94. I got my 20in barrel model for $89 and the 16in model for $149!!! In the early 90's.
I bought a beat-to-hell Norinco SKS a few years ago, and I have been nothing but impressed by it. I tried Tapco 25 and 35 round detachable magazines, and for whatever reason, I must have gotten incredibly lucky because my SKS LOVES those magazines. Nary a failure to feed or extract with any of their aftermarket mags. The little rifle just eats any ammo I feed it, and is reasonably accurate. Besides the mags, I have left it in it's original configuration. It isn't the prettiest rifle I own, but it's definitely one of the toughest and most reliable.
The army, militia, or defense force is made of a country’s people. I always thought it was a wise strategy to teach a weapon platform in school (I think it’s one thing other than the AK that the Commies got right). Not only does it remove fear and stigma from a firearm, but as children learn about what it is and real life application, it’s less likely that they’ll shoot their classmates. They’d see it as the tool it is vs. the call of duty (or whatever kids are thinking) fantasy.
When I first worked in manufacturing we had coded part numbers (not serial numbers.) I worked there two years before someone told me how to understand what the part numbers meant. I thought it was just arbitrary before that! That said, I was working as the first stage of manufacturing, cutting blanks out of sheet metal. I didn't even need to know what they were, although I generally did.
My dad served in Vietnam he brought the same one back I still have it in 1969 he carried the SKS through Metro Detroit Airport with a TWA sticker on the buttstock
Bought one a few years back for $250 at the Dallas gun show, but it had no bayonet attached. It also had a permanently attached, non adjustable silk sling that was sewn onto the sling swivels. Sold it a few weeks later for $900... kinda regret that now.
In the late 80's, I bought 2 SovBloc SKS's for $75 each. A PIA to clean the old cosmolene as it had dried up. I sold both 10 years later for $150 each. Now, they're going for $300 to $400. I wish I'd had the foresight to have bought more when they were $75 each. Ian, you answered my question that Operation Rolling Thunder most likely impeded the North Virtnamese ability to produce the SKS consistently.
My granpa used one of this in the old days, he was a footman then became a truck driver till the end of the war. Too bad I dont have a chance to touch this gun in highschool cause my school only have the AK ones. The gun is called CKC that time because "S" is "C" in Russian, even till now people still call it CKC.
6:15 the Vietnamese got weapons and supplies From China but there was also a great deal of animosity between the countries China invaded in 78 and were promptly handed their ass
So i bought a norinco SKS off some guy and after doing hours of research and talking with its originalowner, i found out it was the 55,000-ish thousandth produced in china then went to the NVA. Afterwards it was the 4000-ish imported to Washington state where it spent 30 years before making it to my state where the guy who originally bought it from the importer sold it to me. Its really cool and im lucky to have such an early model out of the 12 million norinco produced. Shoots super reliably. I thought i over paid when i bought it for $300 including ffl fee but when i saw it in person and saw its character, i didnt care tbh. I live this gun and it holds a special place in my heart even though i have newer and "better" guns. I wish i could hear its stories. Too bad i lost it and all my other guns in a boating accident.
A few weeks ago I did a SKS eastern European vs a M1 Carbine face-off. The SKS was more reliable and precise, whereas the M1 carbine was more handy, easier to aim but less precise and reliable. I'd choose the SkS everytime over the M1, but I also really like the M1 for its handling and weight.
My Uncle, who was in Vietnam 1968-1969, USMC, told me that they found at least where they were, the VC armed with the SKS rifles were usually better shots and when they encountered someone who was a sniper, they were armed with an SKS more than anything else. He said of all the guns when he was in country, he had the most respect for the SKS because it had accuracy and the round hit harder than the 5.56.
had some friends in college that got their hands on old school guns and one was a Chinese-made SKS. Best part, they were Chinese and really loved the 2nd Amendment! They had a M1 Garand, Mosin Nagant, and an Enfield too. Good days. And a formidable carbine, lovely recoil in my opinion.
I live in the country outside of a major metropolitan city with a large Chinese immigrant population. We have many Chinese people that drive over an hour from the city to shoot at our local range. They love firearms and are proud of Chinese contributions to firearm manufacturing.
I have an Yugoslavian one with a grande launcher. There is a button/switch that you have to have in the correct position if you don't want to have to recharge the gun after every round. Sometimes a manual is useful!
I have a friend who said “ew gross an SKS” in response to my beautiful Yugo 59/66A1. His reasoning was that apparently the sights “move all over the place” under fire. Leave a comment and I’m going to show him
The ones I’ve shot were accurate. My opinion of them changed as soon as the first couple of rounds. Let your friend burn a magazine or two and he’ll come around.
Not a damn thing wrong with the sights. If anything, the triggers are what affected accuracy, being so heavy and creepy. I have a couple of em and they are great rifles. Let your friend burn through some rounds, he'll change his tune. Also, if you want your trigger cleaned up, There's a guy in Texas that goes by Kivaari on the SKS boards that is a master with these triggers.
Why the desire to have a factory of their own in the counrty? Well, I would wager that it's because them reds had some notions about controlling the means of production.
A little bit of a lengthy response for your great video here, but you just helped me solve a mystery for me I've been wondering about for 32 years .....this is probably the best thing you do for your viewers you help out a lot of people do research on unknown weapons...clearly not just forgotten.. thank you Ian. You should change the name of your title to" unknown and forgotten weapons"😀. Next to my Hungarian model A grenade SKS w/ launcher / w/ original battle sights , This " NVA1" is my rarest SKS ....it has the fiberglass red shellac typical of 1960's Asian production in several countries . I have one of these weapons 65-0059**... it has the factory number 1 on the left side.... but also Chinese Factory 26 markings on the right ! They also have the bottom of the Magwell stamped sideways wide set... which is kind of unusual the stamp is lateral along the Magwell ...it is normally lengthwise... I played your video back three times I can't see where you show the bottom of the Magwell so I was kind of frustrated ...lol.... great video by the way. I wondering if your stamps are sideways on the bottom of the Magwell also appreciate some feedback on that because that's definitely an unusual thing thank you. The only discrepancy in the gun is as follows: 1.)The bolt itself is the only numbers that doesn't match the rest of the weapon.....and has a 4-Digit mark on it. I believe it was replaced in the field... 2) no sling several veterans tell me the NVA in particular didn't like carrying slings because they got caught on brush and made noise slapping up against their equipment or the gun itself and trying to move at close range that could get someone killed carrying it like that It was given to me by the veteran when I turned 19 in 1988. He died several years back and was an amazing man. I actually shot the gun a lot ...it shoots like a tack driver ...very accurate ...it is flawless. I also have a crate of 2 tins ( 1unopened) 1440 rds original ammo that the vet brought back! ..1967 stamped steel core ammo . these rounds had serious penetration capabilities shooting hot rounds back then these rounds are almost considered AP. I've never had anyone explain to me why it has the 26 factory AND factory "NVA one" markings..... I've even had a couple of " knowledgeable" people tell me that it's a fake and then I asked them to please show me where the import Mark which is usually Alexandria Virginia for these.... Crickets . So there's no import mark on the barrel or anywhere else... with no import stamp anywhere... So you can tell it's never been obliterated as there's no defacing of any surface of the metal of the gun at all it's actually in great shape.... this is an actual bring bring back as I can document the man who actually brought it back and the fact there's no import marks justifies this as a bringback . there's a miniscule chance someone could have added the marks to the left side of the gun but I have compared it to other pictures of NVA bring backs it's identical in all all forms I got it from a veteran named Wilbur Mabus he served in the SF Pioneer Force on the Cambodian border off Route 1 Pleiku and Kontoum with MacV-SOG.... he said a Montagnard killed the man carrying it and gave it to him. He didn't like the AK he said it was hard to hit people at distance but they were scared of this SKS because they got sniped a lot with them and took a lot of casualties this seems to be also the consensus of a lot of veterans I talked to they have a lot of respect for the SKS. I wonder if this serial number is unusual....very late .... I imagine by 65 there were pretty much only importing type 56 rifles at that point(AK) and not the old type 54 and 52 ( SKS).....it must be one of the last ones . I got too excited when you mentioned that in the video about the 65 series being last ... who would I get in touch with to research the serial numbers ? I can give them the last two digits maybe that would help.... 3) Last unusual feature different from the gun you displayed .... It does not have the side mounted rear sling it's under the stock and also it has a different rear sight base a threaded barrel and the cocking handle is slightly different it's a second series carrier knock hollowed out as they cut three more manufacturing steps on the later charging handles
Somewhere in rural America, one of these are sitting in a closet where someone ripped off the beautiful wood stock to throw on a Tapco stock and punched out the fixed mag 🤢🤮😢
I have one of those, came from Vietnam in 1965. Was taken home by a Marine Sargent, but that is all I remember I have the paperwork that accompanied the rifle here.
I have one I brought back, (sent the former owner to the great rice paddy in the sky) but mine was made in China. Everything is original with the proper paperwork from the army. Still shoots accurately, but not very pretty, but I’ve left it like it was when I captured it.
I remember around 1997 or so there was a glut of the stamped Chinese SKSs at Turner's Outdoorsman in Southern California. I think they were $69 each. The machined ones were $99. Mosin-Nagants were $49 at that same time.
Fun facts, most Vietnamese, from low-rank soldiers to high-rank officers don't call it "SKS".Even in the Army guild books, SKS is called "CKC" because S in Russian is like C, and people used to call this name since the 50s, unless someone plays video games and knows the real name of it. And other names would be called K--56 or K63
I own a Chinese Type 56 with a serial number estimated to have been in production in 1957-58. The story behind mine is the seller told me it was part of a lend-lease agreement with North Vietnam. The stock was definitely buried somewhere for a long period as some of the wood dissolved away, but the rifle itself was in surprisingly good condition given just a little surface rust. I have since refurbished and refitted it with a newer stock and replaced the blade with the spike bayonet. My second favorite of what I call my "story guns", the other is a Mosin rifle with SA Finnish capture markings taken during the Russo-Finnish Winter War. Love this channel, wish Ian would try covering bayonets too!
Curiosity question-I own an SKS. What species of wood was used for the stocks? Obviously, there was local variations. I changed mine out for a plastic stock, but I'm also a woodworker, and the wood and the process interests me. Some quality milling went into that work, and it should be appreciated. Mine may be oak, or a sort of walnut,/hickory, but it's difficult to establish that after it's finished and oiled. Mine is Russian, so it's more than likely a Northern temperate species, just wondering which one.
I have done some SKS buying and selling with Darrin (aka Prince50) over the years. He has one of if the most extensive collection of SKS's out there inducing the Trinity mentioned in the video and more on top of it. I believe he has sent his entire collection off to RI to be auctioned off in the future so if you have been looking for a "holy Grail" piece then keep an eye out.
my first real gun was a sks. there was this small gun shop in a antique mall and when you walked in there was a whiskey barrel full of these! sign read you pick 80.00! roughly mid 1990s.
I love my norinco sks paratrooper, and I'm seeing these sks become collectors item now. It makes me sad some of these sks owners will just destroy them for fun.
@@lungcanc3r666 AR parts kits and cheap bolt guns are literally the same price for better performance nowadays. Way back in the 60s-80s it made sense to just chop up milsurp. They were often more robust and less expensive than dedicated sporting/hunting rifles. But now? Anyone who tears up history just to do a worse job than a Savage Axis or poverty-tier AR is suuuuper fuckin' retarded. I don't give a goddamn whose property it is-- this kind of piss-poor judgement and lack of tool skill always ruins whatever area the bubba decides to infest. I'm sick of them chopping up rare rifles and desacrating them with Bondo and JB Weld like I'm sick of them dumping their used oil in the ditch and leaving trash everywhere. I have never met a bubba that wasn't a POS. Garbage human beings that I regrettably share a city with. Fuck bubbas.
Funny, I bought a whole crate of these in consecutive serial numbers a few years ago left them in the box because they had so much cosmoline to remove.
Speaking bout nam's abismal industrial prowess. In 1964 we had a project called " đầu máy tự lực" ( self produced) locomotive car. All that ever come out of that was a rolled and riveted boiler tank 20mm thick, holding 7kg/cm2 pressure. We cant machine the wheel, axle, piston or bearings. In the end,after losing much money, it was decided that we buy the whole thing from china in parts, to be assembled in nam. Ironically, the stamped sign writing" tự lực" (self produced) on the train had its die manufactured in china. But everything is technically made in nam. We also like the" but we were in a war and colonized by western powers" excuse which kills every attempt at improvement.
Russian SKS rifles are almost quite literally a dime a dozen here in Canada. Most people I know have at least one. Can buy a fairly good condition rifle for 2-300 dollars, less in some cases, and a big tin block of corrosive ammo
This makes me miss home. Ozark Machine Gun is in Lebanon, Missouri. My family used to own property outside of Saint James, Vichy, and Cook Station. All of those are about an hour from Lebanon.
I had one of these. Sold it a few years back for $400. It was a Vietnam war bring back. I've got a brand new never fired later production Chinese sks but rather have the NVA bring back....research I did back then said many of these are know as Cino (think I spelled that right)Soviet rifles. Which where Russian sks parts,assembled in china before they got full tooling in production in making parts.
Estimating the number of something based on a sample of sequential serial numbers is known as the "German tank problem". According to the frequentist analysis, the minimum variance unbiased estimator is given by max * (1 + 1/n) - 1 where n is the number of serial numbers observed and max is the largest among them. For the data in the linked forum thread, max = 5805 and n = 76, so we should guess there were 5880 in total. But this assumes there's no preference for nice round numbers for total production. Considering this, your guess of 6000 may be better.
Thank you for another excellent video. I'll say this for the North Vietnamese factory: They did a more legible job putting serial numbers on their carbines than the Russians.
And then also the enemy you had the first time around is now your friend because they're enemies with the friend you had then but who is now your enemy! (actually factually how it is between the US, Vietnam and China now, ain't that something?)
@@MalikCarr now, none of them are friends nor enemies cos you don't trade with your enemy and they do a lot of trades. They are business trading partners and at times business competitors. Vietnam depend on USA for exports and China for imports, both are vital to her economy.
@@gnutzguy Well, not enemies in a shooting sense anymore, but Vietnam is (IMO rightfully) concerned about China's expansionist foreign policy, and we in the US dislike China just on principle. It's not a coincidence that we were suddenly not only normalizing political relations with Vietnam but engaging in large scale trade and tourism with them right when China was becoming a true superpower in its own right.
