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North Korean SKS - Now here's a story with pictures

10K views 20 replies 16 participants last post by  Prince50 
#1 ·
Was invited to a shoot with a buddy at his buddy's place. I take a bunch of toys, including an Albanian SKS...

After seeing the SKS, his buddy goes "I've got an old SKS that my father brought back from the war, but it doesn't work". I tell him I'm pretty familiar with them, and if he wants to get it, I would take a look at it for him.

He comes back a few minutes later with an SKS in a Russian Laminated Stock. I'm thinking it some old Russian with a bull story.

He hands it to me, I look down at the receiver cover, and what do I see....




Of course, I take it all down, fix the bolt and took the following pictures. When I was done, I got to test fire it, worked like a charm...I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it when it was back together due to my batteries went dead...

Now, any info you can give me on it, including a value (it's not for sale, I just want to give him some good info on it)....

No import marks.

All matching numbers except the stock.

Don't know about the dial? on the side.

Has a gas cutoff?

Thinks he has some paperwork on it somewhere that his dad gave him with it. Was told it was taken off a dead solder by his father in Korea....













Rare finds are still out there....:D
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Your friend has a really really nice SKS, the pitting notwithstanding. The "dial" on the side is the base for a grenade launcher sight, and it does have the gas cutoff for launching grenades. Your friend needs to immediately attempt to locate the paperwork he got with the weapon and if the father is still alive he needs to get him to write a statement as to the capture. He should also see if the rest of the sight was captured with the rifle and if they still have it. To be all original it should have a blade bayonet, not that spiker I see in your photo. It would have most likely come from Vietnam. Value - should be $2k to $2200. If he can find the rest of the pieces I mentioned above, maybe a tad more, tho a spike bayo and overall condition will hurt some. If it really is his father's bringback - priceless.
 
#3 ·
Actually, very nice condition considering what the rifle went through.
The letters after the 63 are the Korean word "sik", meaning "type", so that makes the rifle a "Type 63". Korean pronunciation is "yook ship sam (the Korean a is pronounced like a in father) sik (actually pronounced more like shik).
The Korean letter that looks sort of like a backwards S is an R, followed by the Korean letter CH. The letter after the serial number that looks like a square C is the Korean letter D.

There was a NK Type 63 recently on GunsAmerica listed for $1,399.
If you google "type 63 SKS" you will find some more info.

Here is a Gunboards thread a few months ago talking about a Type 63:

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?p=347097

Tom
 
#8 ·
An old thread, but I wanted to ask:

If it is a Vietnam bring-back Type 63 North Korean SKS, could the NVA/PAVN or VC have put the chinese spike bayonet on it? Don't the post-1965/66 Chi-com Type 56 SKS rifles have those kind of bayonets? Great pics! Hope you can post more some time, if you friend is interested.
 
#11 ·
I hoped my $1500 bid would do it on that one, but alas it did not even meet reserve. I was ewatching it till 1200 Denver time.

Did not need another but for $1500 or so I would have done it.

$2000 without papers??? Somebody was willing to pay it.

Makes me feel richer when I walk into the vault.

D
 
#13 ·
That pitting is from a damp stock. It stops at just about the stock line. Although, bolld could have seeped in there too, it does stop before going all the way back, so you might be right.

My first NVA had it too. I guess the stocks retained moisture in the jungle and rusted the rifles.

Too bad.

D
 
#16 · (Edited)
I will have to agree with Badash, it is quite unlikely that this rifle was captured in Korea. I would suspect that it came back from Vietnam. The seller, according to my emails to him, bought it from the soldier about 15 years ago and had lost contact with him and therefore the seller could not verify the story.

Howie, if you can locate Col. David H. Hackworth's books, one of them mentions having captured some (or perhaps one, I cannot remember) SKS rifles in Korea. I am sure that he knew what an SKS rifle was, so I would call him a credible source. Since he served during the Korean War, the rifles would have been Russian. The war ended in September of 1953.
 
#17 ·
I talked with a korean vet back in the 70's and he told me there is no place on earth that cold as Korea. That sks even with the pitting doesn't look that bad going thru the cold and snow the way it did.

I passed on two nam bring back sks's many years ago. One was clean for $400 and the other had dried blood on it for $450. I didn't want any ghosts in my gun safe.
 
#19 ·
The rifle above couldn't be from the Korean *War* since a Type 63 and AFAIK that refers to the western calendar year of design, 1963. It's remotely possible I guess it was obtained from NK commando's in SK, whose activities picked up in the late 1960's. But Vietnam would seem much more likely.

On SKS's in the Korean War, it's not a question just of Hackworth's credibility but that there are virtually no other direct statements about SKS's in that war, AFAIK. Most references to them are statements in non-authoritative sources that don't give the original source. There were certainly none in the initial stages of the war, and they could not have been very common even late in the war, or there would have to be more clear examples of them than one statement by Hackworth.

Joe
 
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