The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

When one thinks about a Vietnam bringback, the usual picture that comes to mind involves pitting, patina, and general jungle grime.

These pictures tell an entirely different story. Wish I could strangle the stock sander, but other than that, an M21 arsenal SKS with no evidence of ever being fired in the field is an unlikely find, for sure. Still in cosmo below the wood line.

Enjoy, ladies and gents.

Not as unusual as you would think, I have it's twin, many of these were shipped south just before Tet in '68 to arm the "popular uprising", they were captured new in the crate and many GI's grabbed one as a legal bringhome ( not full auto like the AK, or a relic like the '53) I have a copy of the papers that came with mine someplace on photobucket, I will see if I can find it, yours probably has a similar story

Fantastic documentation, JYD.

I'm betting that your serial number is in the 10 or 11 million serial range?

Sadly, I have no documentation with mine - just a story. But I paid for just the gun. It is an M21 No.XXXXX Arsenal, which only has one source (SE Asia) to be here in the US. Very few M21's are here, compared to the factory /26\. This is the only one I've ever seen that appears to be a cache weapon. The story is believable, though. A medic brought the gun home in 1971. His brother sold the gun after his passing.

That sounds about right for the serial number, the rifle is in storage and I forget what the exact number is. Picked that up from the brother of the guy who packed it home, he was moving and wanted it gone, this was back in '86 when the Vietnam bringhomes had yet to attract much attention from collectors.

I like them both.

Very nice bringbacks guys.

Some SKS information to add:

There are two eras of M21 production, the first run is thought to be from the 1960's and are, as ardent collectors describe, "new porduction for foreign military use". China supplied these guns to the North Vietnamese as a clandestine attempt at disguising the origin of the arms. These rifles do not have the typical triangle arsenal mark, or the Chinese characters that are found on other military production models. The serial number begins with an "M21", which is directly followed by "No." and then the serial number. None of these specifically marked guns have been documented to have been imported to the U.S., leaving the only probable means of entry into the country would come from North Vietnam capture and bringback.

The second run of M21's appeared in the late 1970's and possibly the early 1980's. These were extremely high quality guns, made with the same basic features of the late factory /26\ guns. The handguards came in two patterns of ribbed brown or tan plastic molds, and are commonly referred to as the French Tickler type handguards. These serial numbers also had the M21 designation, but also had another identifying block of numbers such as (0296), (416) or (016), IIRC. These were import stamped guns, brought to the U.S. for commercial sale.

Here are some pics of my import marked M21 (0296). These sport the French Tickler, and are fairly common. Exceptional finish on these guns, as well.






Close comparisons of both versions of the M21 indicate that they were most likely made at the Jainshe Arsenal /26\, but not stamped as such.

I've been waiting for YEARS to score an early M21. And to find one that was most likely a cache weapon is almost incredible. Hence, I am STOKED!

Great info and great stories! Thanks for posting the wonderful pics of your SKS's. That documentation letter is quite a piece of history all by itself.