Cartridge: 7.62x39
Method of
operation: Gas
Method of locking: Tilting block
Method of fire: Self loading
Method of feed:
10-round internal box magazine
Weight, unloaded: 8lb
8oz (3.85kg)
Length: 40.2 in (1,021mm)
Barrel: 20.5 in (521mm)
Rifling:
4 grooves, RH
Sights: Foresight- post;
Rearsight- tngent notch
Muzzle velocity:
2,410 ft/sec (735 m/sec)
Rate of fire: 20 rounds/min
Range, maximum effective: 433 yds (400m)
The SKS Carbine was designed by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov.
Born in 1894, Simonov began work in a foundry immediately after completing his elementary school studies. In 1915
In 1917, after completing a basic technician's course of instruction, he he began working at the assembly of the
Federov-designed Avtomaticheskaya Vintovka Federova, 1916g (Federov 1916
AutomaticRifle).
He studied further at Moscow Polytechnic Institute after the Communist Party takeover, and left there in 1924 to work at the Tula Arsenal. By 1926 he had become
a quality-control inspector at Tula, and by 1927, had been promototed into the
Soviets' Design and Development Department where he worked directly under Federov.
During World War II, Simonov designed a self-loading antitank rifle, the 14.5x114mmPTRS, scaled-down versions of which
became the 7.62x54R SKS41 and7.62x39 SKS45.
It was the virtually back-to-back development of the SKS-41 and -45 models that led to what we now know as the SKS Carbine, without argument one of the most popular semi-automatic rifles in the world.
During 1907 as well, Federov and Vasily Alekseyevich Degtyarve developed a self loading rifle with a forward cycling barrel which showed great promise. Mis-feeding, reliability and safety problems developed with that rifle, however and were attributed to its use of the rimmed 7.62x54 mm rifle cartridge developed in 1891 for use in in the Mosin Nagant bolt action rifles. Despite the problems with this prototype, the military asked Federov to continue his development with an eye toward ironing out the wrinkles in an otherwise good design.
These efforts led Federov to design a new rifle using the significantly smaller 6.5x50mm Meiji 30 Japanese cartridge. The avenue of research was a success and the resulting final design was accepted as the Federov Avtomat 1916.
Some FA-16s saw combat use towards the end of World War I in Russo-German clashes, however, the Federov Avtomat proved less than desireable under combat conditions. The machine proved sensitive to dirt and abuse in the field, leading again to misfeeds and misfires.
Politics and surplus overages also conspired to an early end for further development of the Federov Avtomat. Federov was not in favor with the Communist party. That lack of political 'stroke,' coupled with vast hoards of 7.62x54 ammunition led to fall from grace of both Federov and the 6.5x50 cartridge in Russia. (The Swedes, however, continued investigation of the Japanese cartidge, leading eventually to their standardization of their Mausers to a 6.5x55 round.) Soviet designers were directed to concentrate on a self-loading military rifle that used the existing 7.62x54 round.
The next step toward the development of the SKS came in May, 1935. The Soviets held a competition to develop a new self-loading infantry rifle. Sergei Garolovich Simonov submitted an accepted design which was adopted as the 7.62 mm Avtomaticheskaya Vintovka Sistemi Obrazets 1936 (7.62 mm Model 1936 Simonov System Semiautomatic Rifle-- designated more simply as the AVS36.
The AVS36 is gas operated and uses a vertical moving block for a bolt-lock. It was designed to accomodate a fifteen round detachable magazine. The Achilles' Heel for the AVS proved to be a tendency to foul and malfunction during extended automatic fire. It was also plagued by a high incidence of mechanical breakdown and part-fatigue because of the pounding to the machine itself from the extremely high-power 7.62x54 cartridge.
A succeeding design (in both senses of the word) was then submitted by Feodor Vasilevich Tokarev. It was accepted, built and designated the Samozaryadnya Vintovka Systemi Tokareva Obrazets 1938g (Model 1938 Tokarev System Self-loading rifle) or SVT38. The SVT38 employed a short gas-operated piston for operation of the bolt, which was then locked by dropping into place against an internal 'step'. The SVT38 used a ten round detachable box magazine.
The SVT38 suffered fewer mechanical problems than the AVS36 and Tokarev was in better cahoots with Stalin than was Simonov, therefore, the SVT-38 was chosen over the AVS36 for mass production as a military rifle. Full production of the SVT38 began in 1939.
The SVT38 was not without its problems as a military rifler either, it soon proved. In 1940, it was lightened and the bayonet shortened. Those changes, however, could do nothing about the fact that the SVT38 was still being pounded to pieces during rapid fire by its own 7.62x54 cartridge. Breakdowns, misfeeds, unreliability in the field-- same old shopping-list of problems. The pressures on the Soviet military during World War II, however, made it impossible to design, test and introduce new rifles into the military. As a result, the SVT40 (along with the old stand-by Nagant bolt action rifles) made up the basic infantry armament during the War.
Between 1940 and 1942, production of the SVT40 exceeded one million rifles.
For his part during WWII, Simonov designed the PTRS Antitank rifle, an excellent ''heavy rifle'' that used a 14.5x114mm shell. He had also worked on the design for an unsuccessful submachine gun intended to use the light-bulleted but lethally high-powered 7.62x25 Tokarev round. Drawing on the design for the successful anti-tank system and technological plusses of the less-than successful submachine gun, the ''first draft' of the SKS was born -- the SKS45.
The SKS45 was a self loading carbine using the new 7.62x39 cartidge developed by the Soviets in 1943. Field trials proved the weapon and, in 1944 a pre-production run of the SKS45 went to the Byelorussian front for battlefield trials. After some small 'tweaking,' it was officially adopted and designated the ''7.62 Samozaryadnyi Karabin Sisyemi Simonova Obrazets 1945g (7.62 Simonov System Selfloading Cabine Model 1945)-- shortened to SKS45-- and
chosen as the ideal replacement for the SVT40.
The SKS was first mass produced in 1949 at the Tula Arsenal, and production continued through 1955.
The SKS' main drawbacks (a lack of ''select fire'' option for fully automatic fire and it's fixed rather than detachable magazine) led to the development of it's military replacement, the infamous Avtomat Kalishnikova Obrazets 1947 (AK47)
designed by Michail Timofeyevich Kalishnikov. Kalishnikov copied many of the features of the SKS45 including portions of the gas system, sights and receiver. By 1953 the SKS had been replaced by the Kalashnikov as the standard-issue rifle for the Red Army.
Even after it's replacement within the soviet militray by the Kalashnikov AK, the export of SKS technology to other countries became a mainstay in the Soviets' technology-transfer package. The SKS enjoyed broad appeal, and was adopted by most of the Communist Bloc nations, including East Germany(Karabiner-S), North Korea (Type 63 Carbine), Yugoslavia (M59/66 Rifle),and the PRC (Type 56 Carbine).
Other nations which utilized the SKS but did not receive manufacturing rights included Afghanistan; Albania; Congo, People'sRepublic; Indonesia, Iraq, Laos, Lebaneses paramilitaries, Mongolia, Morocco, United Arab Republic (Egypt), Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and the Yemen People's Democratic Republic.
The Communist Chinese became particular fans of the SKS, manufacturing their own Type 56 carbine, and an SKS-derived selective-fire assault rifle, the Type 68/72.
The Type 68/72 is easily identifiable by it's selector switch on the right side of the rifle just forward of the trigger, and by a gas regulator knob extending from the fore of the gas cylinder. The Chinese were reportedly experimenting with new variations on the SKS theme as late as about 1980.
The political interchange between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China is fraught with its own series of hotter and colder political wrangling. The period of cooperation during 1956 and 1957, however, has left an interesting legacy for firearms collectors with a particular interest in the SKS carbine. As the fruition of a technology transfer agreement, the Soviet Union apparently sent several firearms technicians and trainers as well as several shipments of Russian surplus parts to the PRC in order to help the Chinese Jianshe Armory establish their own production. As a result, there are a few hundred (thousand, perhaps-- production numbers have not been determined) rifles out there that are made completely of Russian parts with Russian proofmarks on the parts that bear Chinese Jianshe arsenal marks on the receiver. These are, legitimitely, Chinese SKS despite the fact they were made entirely with Russian parts under the supervision of, if not actual construction by Russian technicians at the Chinese arsenal. LIke some mute testimony to its Russian origins, these initial Chinese rifles were equipped with the blade-type bayonet common to the Soviet rifle, rather than the 'trademark' spike bayonet typical of the Chinese.
A full discussion of the ''SinoSoviet SKS'' can be found at this link.
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