New to me Chinese T53 1954.4

[Crazysarge16]

Been awhile since I posted on here

Have been trying to downsize some of my stuff lately, mainly to help pay off the new HVAC system we had to install in our house this past week unexpectedly. Plus, I'm not shooting some stuff as much and some builds have been sitting for over two years waiting to be completed. Having cleaned out most everything I was willing to part with, I went back through and made sure all my remaining rifles were in the configurations I wanted them. All said and done I had two AR lowers left over, one Anderson and one Spikes both completed. Not to worry, my remaining surplus collection of my Garand, Italian Carcano M91, SCW Mosin, Savage Lee Enfield, and one Chinese T53 were not harmed during the downsizing.

Posted them up on Armslist, sold the Anderson relatively quickly for just lower and the installed LPK. The Spikes Tactical Crusader lower sat for awhile, until I saw something that peaked my interest. A younger guy was looking for a complete lower to finish his AR and was offering a Chinese T53 for trade. After some wheeling and dealing, we worked a deal we were both happy with. I'm one less AR lower that can spawn into another AR that would linger in the safe and now have another Communist for my Garand to beat up on in the safe.

I love these rifles, this is actually my third. The first two were ones I bought a few years back when Omega had them for $100 shipped. Buddy was my FFL, so best money I had spent in quite some while. Granted both were really rough,but one cleaned up very nicely. Sadly had to sell it last year to pay off other medical bills. The other is still in my garage disassembled, trying to find time to go finish cleaning it up.

This is the first mostly all matching T53 I've encountered. Only number that doesn't match is the buttplate, but the bolt, receiver, trigger guard, and stock all match.

I've even got a Chinese sling somewhere in the garage to throw on this bad boy.

Though this one does have some markings I'm not family with, such as the "92" stamp on side of trigger guard and the star on side of the receiver

[ffuries]

Nice looking stock on it. Mine looks like a dog chewed on it, and there was a white haze caused by the degreasing that the importer did.

[JC 762]

Nice looking rifle ,the star marking is interesting I haven`t seen that before.

[SA1911a1]

Nice looking rifle ,the star marking is interesting I haven`t seen that before.

That is what caught my eye too.

[Crazysarge16]

Nice looking stock on it. Mine looks like a dog chewed on it, and there was a white haze caused by the degreasing that the importer did.

Yeah, this one is definitely the nicest one I've gotten my hands on so far. I think the previous owner (the guy before the young guy I got it from) had it apart at some time cleaning it cause the action screws were loose when I got it. Still need to completely disassemble and inspect the rifle before I go shooting it. I'll just give everything a once over, oil the metal under the stock, and call it a day.

Passed on my Okie headspace gauges (though I couldn't find my go gauge)

[Crazysarge16]

Nice looking rifle ,the star marking is interesting I haven`t seen that before.

That is what caught my eye too.

I was definitely intrigued by the marking once I actually got hands on the rifle. Young guy just sent me pictures of rifle overall, and of the front of receiver. He only had it cause bought it off a friend cause it was fun to shoot

[Longcolt44]

Unfortunately our friend Bubba has refinished this other wise nice T53. These T53's were made for war not the pretty crowd.

[Crazysarge16]

Unfortunately our friend Bubba has refinished this other wise nice T53. These T53's were made for war not the pretty crowd.

I was afraid of that, thought it looked too good to be true. Ohh welp, I'm still going to shoot he snot out of it and enjoy it

Probably will leave it alone finish wise cause who cares at this point. Hopefully I can wear it off through hard usage

[Junk Yard Dog]

Unlike the Soviets the Chinese commies haven't collapsed yet. This means we do not have access to the arsenal information like we have with some of the Soviet stuff. The Chinese aren't talking about their weapons now or in the past, still state secrets assuming anyone over there even remembers what the small markings mean. $100 for an Omega? That must have been much later than the ones I was buying at $25 each, not including the couple that were just given to me by dealers I was doing a lot of business with. When they first came in back in the 80's they were hard to move. That was long before collectors began to appreciate the been there and done it all look. These rifles used an oily wood, shoot it and some of that finish will start lifting off when it gets hot, at least on the front.

[qz2026]

Nice looking rifle ,the star marking is interesting I haven`t seen that before.

That is what caught my eye too.

Me too

[zeebill]

Those stars often appear on type 53 carbines and other models too. I am beginning to think maybe it is just a very popular inspection stamp. I have seen quite a few with a similar wood and finish like yours, matter of fact I just traded one recently. There was a period there when someone was trying to match the star stamp on refurb 91/30's with the triangle 25 marking which was also on many of them. I think better heads prevailed and when Alex wrote his book he straightened out a bunch of this stuff while identifying many marks from Soviet repair depots and such. I am almost positive when I say the traded away Type 53 had a star or two on it and I know the wood and finish looked almost identical too.

There was a time when that star supposedly meant that soviet repair work had been done to the rifle too. I know that wood for sure is not the Chu wood the Chinese supposedly used but those rifles did indeed get around to other Combloc nations by the look of them. Navy Arms brought some of the real early ones in and indeed I have one that looks like it was made just yesterday in one of my safes. The one I traded away was very scantly marked Nave Arms import on the receiver rear wing left side and if one had never seen a well marked one you would never know what that chicken scratching was. Usual great trigger and well shot and taken care of bore. I too shot the poop out of it and enjoyed with a great deal of accuracy from it till about 100 yards and after that it wasn't very good. The bore after much use was clean, sharp, and showed the usual wear.

You will like as not enjoy the heck out of shooting that and if I didn't have about a half dozen of them that rifle would have never left here! Congrats and buy lots of ammo for it! Bill

[millman]

I am not sure that is a refinish. I have 2 t53's, and while one looks black and oil soaked, the other one is matching, and has the remnants of a shiny finish like that. It is hard to tell from pictures.

[zeebill]

I am not sure that is a refinish. I have 2 t53's, and while one looks black and oil soaked, the other one is matching, and has the remnants of a shiny finish like that. It is hard to tell from pictures.

I didn't say anything about refinish I was just pointing out that type of finish is not typical for a Chi-com type 53 but is often seen. I don't know who did it as a finish but I too am saying it may indeed be original to that variety of type 53. Think I have about 3 or 4 left and they are close to being like that one. It is a common seen finish but who did it and what country I don't know but I doubt it was Bubba. There are just too many that look like that for me to think anything but a country did them. Millman I think you very well described what is found in the overall variety of finishes floating around. Bill

[millman]

Bill, I was replying to Chuck(LongColt44).

[SA1911a1]

It looks a lot like the Finish on this Navy Arms import:

[Longcolt44]

I could very well be wrong on the refinish. When the T 53's were plentiful I made it a mission to collect all the years they made them. All mine are the color of the attached so my view may be tainted.

Chinese T53 004.jpg

[capt14k]

Didn’t Navy Arms refinish many of the T53?


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[millman]

I don't know either, I'm just saying that it is hard to judge from pictures sometimes.

[zeebill]

Didn’t Navy Arms refinish many of the T53?

Who really knows? Val told me one time that they didn't have time to do things like that or money either. I know they had people messing with Enfields making them into quasy Jungle Carbines so maybe they did refinish some of them? That consortium of companies they had often headed different ways at the same time. I do know many of the real early imports they had were like new and sometimes were not even totally serialed as others were. Who made them or maybe redid them? Too many years ago and many involved are long gone so how do we tell? Yet many people are totally sure of this or that in relation to them. Sorry but to my looking at the subject I'm going to believe what Val told me and assume they came in like new with perfect blue from Chinese sources and missing some serials too. I had one many years ago and then to make me prejiduos I found another one recently so I enjoy a tainted viewpoint I guess. Bill

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[Themosinkid95]

God I want another T-53