SOG Type53 Order Came In Today.

[bgelectrician]

My SOG order came in today for three Type53 Chinese Rifles I purchased for $93.00 each. One of them has some initialing in the stock and all three are pretty dinged up. One is really beat up the rest not as bad. I will probably take the best parts of all three and make a decent one to keep as is, refinish the stock on another and then was going to buy some after market products and make a nice sniper rifle out of another.

[lasbrg]

My SOG order came in today for three Type53 Chinese Rifles I purchased for $93.00 each. One of them has some initialing in the stock and all three are pretty dinged up. One is really beat up the rest not as bad. I will probably take the best parts of all three and make a decent one to keep as is, refinish the stock on another and then was going to buy some after market products and make a nice sniper rifle out of another.

Don't do anything to the initialed one. Type 53s with trench art are not very common.

[bgelectrician]

Good to know, I own 4 Mosins but these are my first T53's. Never seen Initials in a Rifle before.

[McNally M.]

Do we know approximately how many of these were churned out by the Chinese? Everyone knows that the Ruskies pumped out 17 million of our much beloved USSR Mosins, but what about the cheap Chinese version? How many of those are out there?

[lasbrg]

Do we know approximately how many of these were churned out by the Chinese? Everyone knows that the Ruskies pumped out 17 million of our much beloved USSR Mosins, but what about the cheap Chinese version? How many of those are out there?

From mosinnagant.net:

Chinese production of the carbine began in 1953 and the designation of this new carbine was the Type 53 . The early proofs on the barrel shank of the Type 53 will have both Chinese characters and the number 26 or 296. The Chinese characters translate to " 53 Year Type " and the 26 or 296 are the stamping of the State Factory at Chongqing. ... The production numbers of the Type 53 Carbine are unknown at this point and it is doubtful they will be known in the near future. The closed nature of China and icy relations with the West have and will prevent the release of this information. It is assumed that the production numbers are rather high as the production run did not end until 1960 or 1961

Besides this question, I don't believe it is generally known where this latest batch of Type 53s came from. Someone correct me if I am wrong about this. Century is not saying, as usual, and some reseller stories about Vietnam are clearly wrong based on bgelectrician's "ZIG BEN" (or whatever that says) trench art.

The first lore on the 2012 Century Type 56s was also that they were used in Vietnam until it was conclusively proved that they actually came from Albania. I'd like to see a similar research effort on the origin of these Type 53s.

[NOTABIKER]

this is why i prefer in person retail. i bought one of the chinese -alb SKSs turners sold a few months ago. the chino hills store did not have them to view before purchase. the one i got had pretty good metal and it functioned ok. but the wood just looked beat up. i like my rifles to look nice and function. most of the turners SKSs were in worse condition than mine and i still sold it.

[yellowsled]

I believe they came from albania also, but thats just a hunch i have. Sadly there isnt much trench art on the 53's that would identify their location. We do know they didnt come from china as per trade policy.