SKS rifle

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Russian Simonov Type 45 aka the Russian SKS rifle - 7.62x39mm. The Russian SKS has a milled receiver and a blade bayonet. The rifles were issued with hardwood or laminated stocks. This example has a hardwood stock.

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Chinese Type 56 Carbine aka the Chinese SKS rifle - 7.62x39mm. The Chinese SKS has a stamped receiver and a spike bayonet (aka a "pig sticker") much like one of their AK-47 copies - the Type 56 assault rifle. This version, 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.

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Chinese SKS Paratrooper Sporter with thumbhole stock and 10-round magazine - 7.62x39mm

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Yugoslavian SKS M59/66 rifle with blade bayonet and grenade launcher attached to barrel, the variant most seen during the Balkan Wars - 7.62x39mm. The Yugoslavian M59 is nearly identical to the Russian SKS, it is the M59/66 which has the grenade launcher attachment at the end of the barrel.

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Norinco SKS-D - 7.62x39mm

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Chinese SKS-63 with a 20-inch barrel - 7.62x39mm Carbine

Whereas the Russian SKS rifle can appear in any of the world's battlegrounds, the Chinese SKS should really only appear in places where there was a lot of military aid from the People's Republic Of China. Most of the SKS rifles seen in movies about the Vietnam war are Chinese Type 56 carbines, but to have original Russian Type 45 Carbines is not historically implausible. The Soviet Union supplied ComBloc weapons in every hemisphere where there was a Marxist/communist presence.

Specifications

(1945 - Present)

Type: Rifle

Caliber: 7.62x39mm

Capacity: 10 round internal box magazine (other variants use varying-capacity removable box magazines)

Fire Modes: Semiautomatic

The SKS rifle appears in the following films and television series used by the following actors:

Film

• Seen in a weapons shop and carried by some villagers in Rambo III

• NVA Soldiers in Platoon (Chinese Type 56 Carbine)

• NVA soldiers in Uncommon Valor

• NVA soldiers in Rescue Dawn

• NVA soldiers in Flight of the Intruder (Chinese Type 56 Carbine)

• NVA soldiers in We Were Soldiers

• Soviet soldiers parading Red Square in Red Heat

• Guerilla fighter in RoboCop 3

• Viet Cong in The Odd Angry Shot

• Militia fighters and refugees in Tears of the Sun

• NVA soldiers in Hamburger Hill (Chinese Type 56 Carbine)

• Colombian Soldier in Toy Soldiers

• The Dogs of War

• The Katanganese Gendarmes and Simba rebels in Dark of the Sun (Chinese Type 56 Carbine)

• Tropic Thunder

• Red Corner

• Stealth

• Hanson (Ted Monte) in Curse of the Komodo (Norinco SKS Sporter)

• Mariana (Rosario Dawson) in The Rundown (Norinco SKS Sporter)

• Serb and Bosnian Soldiers in No Man's Land (Yugo SKS Rifle aka M59/66)

• American Beauty

• Sniper 3

Television

• The Unit

• VC and NVA units in Tour of Duty

• VC and NVA units in China Beach

• East German soldiers in The War Game (1965)

• Seen used by Serb Soldiers in the Episode "Downed Pilot" in Situation Critical (Yugo SKS Rifle aka M59/66)

• Kate in several episodes of season 6 of Lost

Video Games

Game Title	Appears as	Mods	Notation	Release Date
Project Reality				2005
Insurgency				2007
Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain		With inaccurate 50-round magazine and automatic fire		2004
Vietcong				2003
Jagged Alliance 2				1999
Silent Storm: Sentinels		With & without scope		2004
Battlefield: Vietnam				2004

Animation

• Metalocalypse

See Also

• Type 63 Rifle Externally Resembles the SKS Rifle