North Korean, E German, and Vietnamese SKS Rifles
Anyone own any North Korean, East German or Vietnamese SKS Rifles, if so what do you think of them in terms of quality compared with other more available SKS rifles?
Regards
Regards
0
-
I owned a Viet made SKS years ago. It like the E. German and N. Korean are so rare they are very big buck collectors items. No collector would buy it as a shooter. If they got their hands on one it would immediately become a safe queen. IMHO quality would be immaterial for one of these SKS's to a collector, he would just be very happy to have one. 0 -
All three are extremely rare in this country. Last year someone stumbled into this forum with an unknown SKS carbine that he thought was made in China but was in fact produced in Vietnam. You can use the search function for this forum and possibly find that thread. The East German made SKS carbines were known as the Selbstlade Karabiner S and were introduced in 1957. All of these rifles are supposed to have been produced at the former East German VEB facility generally referred to as the Ernst Thalmann Werk in Suhl and are pretty much a straight up copy of the Soviet rifles and were nicely made. I've seen several in my travels through eastern Europe but have never seen one in this country, although some surely exist here in Private hands. All North Korean SKS carbines were produced at their Factory 67 and I have never seen an example first hand. 0 -
If I ever get my hands on any I am shooting them, albeit I will take extra care however, but will shoot them never the less and have a Cuban cigar too...[:D] 0 -
I have one of each. I think the North Korean is the roughest, Vietnamese is on par with the early chicom and the East German is the best of the bunch. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by colt601
I have one of each. I think the North Korean is the roughest, Vietnamese is on par with the early chicom and the East German is the best of the bunch.
If you could post some photos we'd love to see them.0 -
Yes, would really like to see some pictures... 0 -
I handled both the N Vietnamese and N Korean SKS while in Nam. The N Vietnamese was of very low quality and the N Korean was only slightly better. I personally would never trust one enough to fire it. Like has been stated both are verey rare here and a collector would not be concerned with the quality as it would never be fired. 0 -
I was fortunate enough to find what I had been told was a Russian example early this year with six pages of documentation where is was brought back in 1968 by a Gunnery Sgt. After inquiring on this forum, it was determined what the country of origin was. I was VERY please to find that it was from North Vietnam. I ended up selling it to a collector for a substantial amount more than I acquired it for. Below is a link to that topic.
To answer your question on quality, it is my understanding (from SERIOUS SKS collectors) that the East German SKS was superior in quality to all other manufactures. Following East German, was the Russian, then North Korean, then Chinese.
The value for these same items is different than quality, especially if they are true "war trophies". The values are from (high to low), East German, North Korea, North Vietnam, Russian, Chinese. I think the reason value is different than quality is due to quantities of these items being available. There are not too many examples of East German for example in the U.S. I hope this helps.
Aaron
http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4428890 -
A few quick pictures of the markings.
First the NVA
The North Korean
The East German. It has little finish left. All three are Vietnam bring backs.
The biggest difference on the East German is the stock and no cleaning rod.0 -
Very nice thanks. 0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
10 comments