My Type-56 and Chest Rig

Nice.

Back in the early '90s, you would see Norinco SKSs stacked 10 high at gunshows. $89 would get you a NIB gun, sling, oiler, 100 rounds of ammo on strippers, and one of those chest rigs. I still have mine too. Never worn it, though, lol.

IIRC, the plastic upper handguard indicates its an actual, PLA-issue Norinco, rather than one of the ones made for commercial export. They are all tough and reliable rifles.

SKS’s are great! Nice picture and load out!

Nice rig there. I always thought that the sks with chest rig and stripper clips was a great set up. All my shooting buddies thought they were junk and that you just had to have a 30 rd replaceable mag. I did get a few of the 30 rd sks mags but found them to be awkward.

JCooperfan1911 said:

I have been shooting my Type-56 Carbine a lot and decided to get a military surplus chest rig pouch for it:

View attachment 964846

Quite a lot of fun! This chest rig is an early Xmas present to myself, and cost all of $14 off eBay. It holds up to 200 rounds on 20 10 round chargers. Enough for any firefight. I think it looks quite clever and helps to round out the rifle. Take care.

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Back in the late 80s they made a plastic pistol grip that sits under the original stock those were pretty cool.
Here is a link to something like it, I post the link only because I am too lazy to steal the photo

https://esellersusa.com/product/sks-rear-pistol-grip/

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I like those commie chest rigs too.

Nice! I've got one of those chest rigs too. While they look cool, and I especially like the toggles, I found it wasn't very practical in a three gun match. I just couldn't get it to fit.

mokin said:

Nice! I've got one of those chest rigs too. While they look cool, and I especially like the toggles, I found it wasn't very practical in a three gun match. I just couldn't get it to fit.

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Well they are at least 40 years old and were tailored for half starved conscripts. The AK pouch I can just barely get the apron ribbons tied.The SKS pouch is longer in length and therefore fit better.

I dig that photo.

Todd.

JCooperfan1911 said:

Thank you fellow internet gun bug

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The simplicity, proportions and composition are publication grade.


Todd.

I really like my type 56. I got it for 80.00 and picked up a full chest rig for another 20. I guess I'm telling my age. One thing I noted was that almost every new one I've looked at had the recoil spring in backwards. It will fire either way but the spring will kink even more if in backwards. The small end of the guide rod goes into the bolt first. I think the problem started with the exploded drawings available. They have the small end behind the larger tube in the drawing.

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I always put the curly end in the bolt carrier so it wouldn't fall out when taking the gun apart. Guess I been doing it right the whole time.

The big thing to watch for on the SKS is the hammer and sear engagement.
https://www.yooperj.com/
Click on the SKS link on that site and scroll down and click on "Safety concerns. A must read."

I bought a Russian Tula around 2011. Still covered in cosmoline.Found out if I smacked the butt on the floor a couple times the hammer would drop. I got paranoid and tested out the other five SKSs I had at the time. Four passed but the the one I have pictured above also dropped the hammer. Both guns got new Sears ordered that night.

Remember that all the safety does on the SKS is block the trigger from being pulled.

I have a Chinese SKS that I bought in May 1988 for $200, which included the oiler and chest rig. That was a year or two before the prices on them dropped below $100. I shot it quite a bit in the late 80s/early 90s. The only malfunctions I can recall were with East German surplus plastic-cored training ammo, which was intended for AKs. Other than that, it simply just worked.

I ought to drag it out and put some rounds downrange.

JCooperfan1911 said:

I have been shooting my Type-56 Carbine a lot and decided to get a military surplus chest rig pouch for it:

View attachment 964846

Quite a lot of fun! This chest rig is an early Xmas present to myself, and cost all of $14 off eBay. It holds up to 200 rounds on 20 10 round chargers. Enough for any firefight. I think it looks quite clever and helps to round out the rifle. Take care.

Click to expand...

The oversized pocket on the right side of the rig in your photo was for the oil bottle. I've seen the bottle in a variety of colors.

My rifle when purchased new in the box came with instruction manuals and the stock mounted cleaning kit.

The toggles on my old one are wood, are they green plastic on yours?

I got the sewing machine fired up and some old ripped out BDUs. Cut the pockets off and sewed them to a Multicam top, it’s my home made tac-vest/shirt.

Looks like crap but is functional. I might dye it in a light green or gray to try to blend the different patterns together.

I really like how thought out the cleaning kit is. Part of the case is a rod guide to prevent muzzle wear, The other part forms a handle, The Garand should have had one to prevent the muzzle wear you see on a lot of well used rifles.

JCooperfan1911 said:

I have been shooting my Type-56 Carbine a lot and decided to get a military surplus chest rig pouch for it:

View attachment 964846

Quite a lot of fun! This chest rig is an early Xmas present to myself, and cost all of $14 off eBay. It holds up to 200 rounds on 20 10 round chargers. Enough for any firefight. I think it looks quite clever and helps to round out the rifle. Take care.

Click to expand...

Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

Nice.

Back in the early '90s, you would see Norinco SKSs stacked 10 high at gunshows. $89 would get you a NIB gun, sling, oiler, 100 rounds of ammo on strippers, and one of those chest rigs. I still have mine too. Never worn it, though, lol.

IIRC, the plastic upper handguard indicates its an actual, PLA-issue Norinco, rather than one of the ones made for commercial export. They are all tough and reliable rifles.

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I'm only 32 and I remember the $99 SKS days. I would go into a shop in Alstead, NH with my uncle or dad and see usually 10-12 on a rack, nice and new looking for next to nothing.

For the guys who bought them back then and kept them, good for you. I'm sure whatever I end up with for grandchildren, their eyes will be bugging when they find out I assembled sub $500 AR's back in the 2010's.....

$79.95 at Jim's Pawn shop in Fayetteville in the day.

If you popped for the whole crate they were something like $68.00 or so and you got ALL the squad gear that they normally removed and pieced out individually.

Oh yeah.... And early deals were on Russians.

Of course - that memory must be tempered by the almost complete unavailability of ammunition.

Todd.

Nice photos and rifles.

I have two Norinco's bought in 1993 for $100 ea and ammo was $150 for 1100 round cases of brash washed, steel cased, steel core '66 stamped commie 7.62x39mm. We won't see those days again I fear.

LaneP said:

Nice photos and rifles.

I have two Norinco's bought in 1993 for $100 ea and ammo was $150 for 1100 round cases of brash washed, steel cased, steel core '66 stamped commie 7.62x39mm. We won't see those days again I fear.

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I got a case of that stuff for around $100 right after I graduated high school in 2004.
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Packaged in brown paper, 30 rounds per packet and on stripper clips. When I opened up the 550 rd tin made a hiss that would get that Stevemre1989 guy on YouTube tingley. And the green paint from the inside of the spam can was still tacky. Should of bought the other two cases the guy had. But money was hard to come by for then 18 year old me. My Mak90 absolutely loves the stuff so I ration it.

And yes it is very corrosive. If you are one of those AK guys that never clean your AK, and you shoot that stuff and throw your AK in the closet afterwards and forget about for a couple months. You might the assistance of WD40 and a rubber mallet.

Speedo66 said:

My rifle when purchased new in the box came with instruction manuals and the stock mounted cleaning kit.

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Zygodactyl said:

I really like how thought out the cleaning kit is. Part of the case is a rod guide to prevent muzzle wear, The other part forms a handle.

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Hidden in a commie booby trap meant to swell your trigger finger and blacken your fingernail.