Romanian SKS Carbine M.56 – 7.62×39

The SKS truly is the ultimate transitional from the World War era to the modern era of rifles. Like in the U.S. with the M14 service rifle, the SKS had a similar implementation, purpose, and rather quick replacement. The Second World War proved that ammo capacity, light weight set-ups, and fire rate were much needed technological advancements for the small arms world. The Russian Red Army had a plethora of full auto and semi auto weapons like the SVT-40 and PPSH-41. However the majority of them and their allies used the bolt action Mosin Nagant rifle. As great as the Mosin Nagant was it was limited to 5 rounds of the heavier 7.62x54R. Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov was the designer of the SKS rifle which stands for Samozaryandy Karabin system Simonova – Simonov’s self loading carbine. Siminov began work in the early 1940s with the SKS-31 (AKA the SKS-41) Only 50 units were produced in 7.62x54R. When the 7.62×39 cartridge was developed the project was revived. The rifle was adopted by the Russian military and eventually for its early Warsaw Pact allies. China was the biggest adopter of the SKS and the longest user of it. At the time 80+ factories in China tooled up for SKS Type-56 production. China made some minor changes in the production process and build of material.

Romania was also an early adopter of the SKS. In Romania of Romarm Cugir was the only factory who produced M56 SKS rifles. It was similar to the Russian SKS with its bayonet, but Romania used their domestic wood and the Romanian stock looks much like early AK wood furniture. The Romanians also went with their park/phosphate finish on these rifles. These rifles were only produced in 1957 until 1960 where Romania had to retool to produce the AKM PM MD63,64 and 65. It is believed that Romania produced 500,000 SKS carbines in these 4 years…

Interestingly, the CIA observed that the SKS was used by Russians during their intervention in Hungary which was well after the AK47/AKM was used to replace it.

The most famous conflicts that the SKS pattern rifle was used in are: The Korean War, Suez Crisis, Vietnam War, Hungarian Revolution, Rhodesian Bush War, The Troubles, Sino-Vietnamese War, Soviet Afghan War, Yugoslav Wars, and the most recent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For sale is an original Romanian SKS carbine. This carbine was produced by Cugir Romania of Romarm. The rifle is in very good condition for its age and rarity. Romanian SKS carbines are not the rarest of the SKS variants much a bit rarer than your Chinese and Yugoslavian built rifles, as Romania only produced these for 4 years out of one factory. The stock is probably the ‘worst’ aspect of this rifle. The finish is overall good and the stock  has the original finish. There is some wear like scuffs and bumps and we did notice a crack on the bottom of the stock near the buttplate that is about 2 inches long. The crack doesn’t appear to be dead and if you keep the wood oiled it should age well for years. The blue/phosphate finish is in okay shape about 75% intact which is common for Romanian guns not to have complete finish. The barrel stood out to us. It was amazing for an SKS. We noted a bore with minimal wear and pretty nice rifling for its age. The bore looked quite clean for a 7.62×39. The action felt good and strong. The trigger feels like a standard SKS, decent take up and wall but it’s a milsurp.

Most serial numbers are matching – It appears that the trigger guard and possibly group are not matching and this rifle is also missing its cleaning rod. The stock may be a mismatch the batch number looked like a match but it was hard to make out the full numbers. Most Romanian SKS rifles are not matching.

RC Serial Number Prefix

Romanian Proof Marks – 8, (K), triangle

CAI – Import Mark – Right side of barrel by gas tube