The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

picked up an arsenal 366 today for less than $300. it is a pinned barrel, stamped, all matching numbers with blade bayo. guessing this is a parts gun? vietnam refurb? it's looks fired very little.

very nice Those Chi-Coms with blades are getting rare, a little too rare for the amount produced really.

Is the bayo cut in the stock narrow for the blade, or wide for a spike? That 23 Million S/N makes me believe its a more recent built receiver.
Howie can best tell if he see's your post. Is the bayo screw peened properly and not broken?

stock is blade cut. ferrule looks to have been spike converted to blade, shallow channel, blade does not fit completely. bayo is peened correctly. i cannot turn it.

turns out the 306 is actually a /366\ arsenal. old age eyes up close!

Pinned barrel production did not start until many years after the blade bayonets were abandoned for the spike bayonets. It may be a parts gun, or a heavily refurbished model. China did not mark its refurbs. As it isn't a Jianshe Factory 26 rifle it is impossible to date it accurately, however the pinned barrel would indicate 1970s to the end of production in the 80s for military versions, and right into the 90s for civilian import/export versions where leftover parts were used to sell specifically to the civilian market.

Very nice looking carbine though. Aren't they all???

Nice looking gun. Yes, stock and bayo are from another gun, or stock has been cut to accept the blade.

I have a couple of the Chinese SKS carbines and do not believe the wood looks as nice as the one on this rifle. Were some Chinese SKS guns fitted with nicer wood?

hudson29 wrote:I have a couple of the Chinese SKS carbines and do not believe the wood looks as nice as the one on this rifle. Were some Chinese SKS guns fitted with nicer wood?

Yes, the later ones were. Especially the ones of 1979 and 1980. From various so called Arsenals and so were the last M21 rifle runs.

Your Norinco 366 is very nice Do they have chromed bbls? What years had the chrome?

As far as I am aware, all of the Chinese SKS have chrome lined barrels. Their production and equipment that included the chrome process was moved from Russia to China. Movement started from the Izhevsk plant in very late 1954 and into 1955. Chinese first gun was in production for delivery in 1956. Therefore the name Type 56 SKS.

The Chinese have never had a good supply of stock blank hardwoods, many of the older SKS rifles I have had hands on including my own bringhome have wood issues, dry rot, or other deterioration. I recall seeing many nice older factory 26 rifles sold without any stock back in the 90's because it had fallen apart, new wood sets and that red plastic stock set seemed to spring up for sale around that time to deal with the problem.

It is a good idea to keep in mind that almost all of the type 56 carbines that are in the US were rebuilt before they arrived. Blade bayonets only were used at Factory triangle 26 (also known as factory 296 or later as 0296) The ones that were not rebuilt were early used guns, and of course any that came home from The Vietnam war,They were battlefield finds or captures. If you think you have a factory new gun check the gas tube and gas piston for the electric pencil numbers if its a as issued they will be the same as the receiver. If all numbers match it may have been a new out of storage gun. Thousands of spare parts existed in China and were used during rebuilds then when all became surplus to build guns to sell. In the late imports some guns were literally thrown together with no matching numbers just to sell them. They in some cases may have used a old part on a rebuild but scrubbed re numbered and re blued them unlike the Russian rebuilds that show poor workmanship on rebuilds the Chinese did a thorough job. Socks come in all shades and some variation of wood. The fiberglass stocks we call Jungle stocks were made in several versions with different sling swivel designs and locations. They did show up on a few imported guns. Years ago you could buy new unmarked stocks from Kengs for as little as 12.00 each. They had allot of them all shades of color. Some of the fiberglass stocks were finished well and others look like they were not completely assembled and finished with gaps in the pieces that were not filled and coated.