SKS rifle

Russian Simonov Type 45 aka the Russian SKS rifle - 7.62x39mm. The Russian SKS has a milled receiver and a blade bayonet. The rifles were issued with hardwood or laminated stocks. This example has a hardwood stock.

Chinese Type 56 Carbine aka the Chinese SKS rifle - 7.62x39mm. The Chinese SKS has a stamped receiver and a spike bayonet (aka a "pig sticker") much like one of their AK47 copies - the Type 56 assault rifle. This version, like many imported SKS rifles, have the infamous 'orange cratewood' stocks, probably the lowest quality wood in any mass produced rifle, save for the last ditch Arisaka Type 99 rifles at the end of WW2. Many SKS rifles during the Vietnam War were issued with reddish plastic stocks, because of the incidents of 'wood rot' in the humid SE Asian jungles.

File:SKS rifle.jpg

Yugoslavian SKS rifle with fold out bayonet, a SKS variant most seen during the Balkan Wars - 7.62x39mm.

Whereas the Russian SKS rifle can appear in any of the world's battlegrounds, the Chinese SKS can really only appear in places where there was a lot of military aid by Mainland China. Most of the SKS rifles seen in movies about the Vietnam war are Chinese Type 56 carbines, but to have original Russian Type 45 Carbines is not historically implausible. The Soviet Union supplied ComBloc weapons in every hemisphere where there was a Marxist/communist presence.

The SKS rifle appears in the following films and television series used by the following actors:

Film

• Seen in a weapons shop and carried by some villagers in Rambo III

• NVA soldiers in Uncommon Valor

• NVA soldiers in Rescue Dawn

• NVA soldiers in Flight of the Intruder

• NVA soldiers in We Were Soldiers

• Guerilla fighter in RoboCop 3

• Việt Cộng in The Odd Angry Shot

• Militia fighters and rebels in Tears of the Sun

• NVA soldiers in Hamburger Hill

• The Dogs of War

Television

• The Unit

• VC and NVA units in Tour of Duty

• VC and NVA units in China Beach