SKS

SKS is a Soviet semi-automatic rifle, designed in 1945 by Sergueï Simonov. She was officially baptized Samozaryadnyi Karabin sistemi Simonova , 1945 (semi-automatic Rifle system Simonov 1945), or SKS 45. She was adopted in 1949 by the Red Army at the side with the rifle of attack AK-47. With the massive production of new rifles of attacks, the SKS was quickly withdrawn with the hands of the units of first line but remained the weapon of the reservists and the official ceremonies. It was largely exported and produced by several countries of old the Warsaw Pact. Among those appear GDR (Karabiner S.), the Albania ( Fusil of July 10th ) and by the North-Vietnamese S ( Type 1 ). The Poland and the Romania began manufacture ( Wz 49 and Modèle 56 ) but gave up the idea from it quickly. Only the China, the North Korea and the Yugoslavia modified it some little. She today (2006) is very appreciated on the civil market of the weapons of surplus.

History

At the end of the Second world war, it appeared necessary to the Red Army to obtain a new rifle for its infantry. Indeed, the old men Mosin-Nagant with bolt were exceeded and had moreover a rate of very weak shooting, whereas the machine pistols also used (PPSch-41 and PPS-43) provided a volume of fire much more important but cruelly missed precision with long range.

It was thus decided that the new weapon was to be compact (one had turned to short weapons during the conflict), semi-automatic and barrack room in a new intermediate gauge between those of Mosin-Nagant (7.62x54mm) and those of the machine pistols (7.62x25mm).

Description

The SKS uses to it Soviet intermediate cartouche 7,62 mm M43 of 7,62x39 Misters It has a fixed charger of 10 cartridges. During its recharging, blades of 10 ammunition is placed at the entry of the store, then the cartridges are pushed inside that Ci. Its users thus do not transport of chargers with them, but of the blades chargers.

Once the introduced ammunition, first is engaged in the room by manual retreat of the handle of armament placed on the line of the box of cylinder head of the weapon. After the first shooting, the gases created during the explosion of the powder load of the cartridges are re-used to actuate a system of pistons and springs making move back the cylinder head, ejecting the casing used and replacing it by a new ammunition. Contrary to the AK-47, the SKS can be used only in semi-automatic mode. The mechanisms of the SKS are well designed and particularly reliable, from where also its success in the armies of the Third world, which have need for weapons not asking too much maintenance.

The SKS is a weapon compact and easy to take in hand, its gun longer ten centimetres and half, that of the AK-47, allows a precision and a range higher than those of this last. The majority of the models lay out of more than bayonet collapsible, folding under the gun, of which she inherited the rifle Mosin-Nagant model 1944.

Specifications technique SKS 45 Soviet

Cartridge: 7.62 X 39 mm
Capacity of the store: 10 blows out of blade-charger
Mass, discharged rifle: 3.85 kg
Overall length: 1,021 m
Length gun: 52,1 cm
Carried maximum effective: 400 m

The Standard Rifle 56 Chinese

RPC produced its copies SKS of 1956 to 1971 in its Factory n°26. The Chinese first Type 56 were identical to the Soviet models. Those manufactured between 1965 and 1971 were equipped with a longer and more frayed bayonet, style which one generally meets on older bayonets (for examples those which equipped the old men Lebel French). Produced to 1 million specimen, the Type 56 fur largely exported in the Third world and took part in the Guerre of Vietnam (units of second village line and militia Viêtcong then with the Guerre sino-Vietnamese in 1979. She is not any more used by the popular Army of Release since the beginning of the years 1980 but remains the weapon of the ceremonies and of the reservists She was used as a basis for the Fusils Type 63/68.

Commercial alternatives

The company China Sports imports many Type 56 with the the United States and the Canada under the name of Model 8 . This one is private of its bayonets and is very appreciated to drive out the deer. The commercial releases D and M also produced by Norinco are fed by a curved charger of thirty blows identical to that of AK-47.

Yugoslav models

Between 1960 and 1970 nearly 400000 PAP (for semi-automatic weapons) M59, M59/66 and M59/66 were produced on behalf of the army and the Yugoslav police force . 100000 of these weapons were sold abroad. The Zastava M59 were similar to the SKS 45 but the guns are not internally chrome. Models M59/66 and M59/66A1 are easily identifiable other versions: they lay out indeed, of a cylindrical hiding place flame lengthened allowing the shooting of various models from grenades of 22mm the standards NATO. Moreover, a folding azimuth reading device of aiming for the curved shooting is placed at the top of the gun on these models which were largely exported in Uruguay and at the Mozambique. The Mozambican versions have a mounting in Teck provided by this nation. but the great majority of the Yugoslav rifles have sticks out of wooden of Hêtre. The quality of manufacture is near even higher than that to the model coming from the USSR.

Commercial releases

Since 2003, the Serb manufacturer took again the manufacture of M59/66 for the civil market. He also designed a version drives out: the ZKP 66. This one with a stick, a hand-shield and elements of aiming different from the military model.

M59 data sheet

Mass: 3,85 kg
Length: 1020 mm
Canon: 520 mm
Store: 10 cartridges

Data sheet M59/66 and 59/66A1

Mass: 4,10 kg
Sleeve lance-grenade: 22mm NATO
Length: 1.120mm
Canon: 560mm
Store: 10 cartridges

Military and civil use

Although it was quickly supplanted, in the units of first line of the Red Army, by AK-47, this rifle was employed during the War of Korea and the Guerre of Vietnam, like during several other conflicts. Among the nations which used militarily the SKS without producing it appears the Afghanistan, the Algérie the Popular republic of Congo, the Indonesia, the Iraq, the Laos, the Lebanon, the Mongolia, the Morocco, RAU (Egypt), the Syria and the Yemen of the south. The SKS was withdrawn from the service in years 1960 and 1970 within the armies of the Third world close to Moscow for the benefit of the Kalachnikov. Many weapons of surplus were resold in the years 1990 and of the photographs and accounts attest use of SKS by franc-tireurs in Bosnia-Herzégovine and Somalia, just as in other countries of Africa and Southeast Asia (with the Eastern Timor in particular) during the years 1990 and 2000. The US Army met some in Afghanistan and Iraq, the France in Ivory Coast. During the riots of 1992 in Los Angeles, Korean tradesmen, used it to defend their stores against the plunderers.

External bonds

Modern Firearms
Simonov.net , site of admirors
Ohio Gun Collectors Association
Surplusrifle.com SKS section
Year article one Yugoslav SKSs, the Model 59 series
Carbines for Collectors
SKS markings and shares refers
SKS Discussion Board
Zastava LKP , 66 pages
SKS Safety Repair/Knowledge

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