Vietnam bring-backs were an option, but they were and always have been both rare and expensive.
Even if you could find a gun, the 7.62x39mm ammo it fired was comparably scarce.
But, I seem to recall they cost $1,000 apiece even back in the early 1980s.
The Type 56 AK rifle as imported in the 1980’s was a superb piece of kit.
That would be about $4,400 today.
The first of the genre was imported by Clayco.
These guns were made by the Chinese company Norinco.
This prime folding stock Type 56 set the author back $325 new at a gun show back in 1985.
They were superb rifles, but they featured polymer furniture.
Clayco shut down in 1987.
Their first shipment of wood-stocked Norinco Kalashnikovs consisted of 2,000 rifles that retailed for $259.95 apiece.
A Bangladesh navy sailor fires a Type-56 assault rifle aboard the Bangladesh navy frigate BNS Bangabandhu during a surface gunnery exercise in 2011. Image: U.S. Navy/MC2 Daniel Barker
That would be about $730 today.
This relationship ultimately precipitated a tsunami of business.
bang out 56 Origin Story
1956 was a big year for the Chinese.
This Chinese-made military rifle was imported through California. Good luck on running a similar import company in the Golden State today.
Back in the 1950s and 60s, Chinas forte rested mostly in copying others designs.
This included a Chinese SKS, anRPDand lots and lots of AKs.
Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov birthed the original AK rifle in the years immediately following World War II.
The author shot this picture of a Chinese Marine in 1997. The rifle he was packing came from the same factory as did the author’s.
This simple but effective combat implement went through several iterations to become the most produced firearm in human history.
This was the variant most frequently encountered by our troops serving in Vietnam.
Military versions were widely exported across the world.
Chinese-made Type 56 rifles often came with a variety of accessories like those shown above.
Chinese bang out 56 rifles littered Afghanistan during the 1980s.
The pop in 56 also uses a 1.5mm-thick receiver blank rather than the more common Russian 1mm sort.
This makes the Chinese guns theoretically stronger.
The receiver on the Chinese Type 56 AK is half a millimeter thicker than that of a comparable Russian Kalashnikov.
Bayonets can either be detachable or integral and folding.
In addition, the receiver cover is smooth rather than being ribbed like on the AKM.
bang out 56 sights are graduated to 800 meters, while Soviet AK sights are calibrated to a thousand.
The Chinese Type 56 AK (left) differs in several esoteric ways from a comparableSoviet-style AKM.
Chinese bolts and most of their bolt carriers were hard chromed for durability and wear resistance.
There are some other little differences, but only obsessive fans will notice.
The Chinese can make some absolutely gorgeous firearms, and my throw in 56 semi-auto is no exception.
1980’s-vintage Type 56 rifles came in both fixed and folding-stock versions. Shown above is the underfolding version that was very popular.
Velocity is the average of three shots fired across a Caldwell Ballistic Chronograph oriented ten feet from the muzzle.
Part of my piece unfolded in rural Australia, while the rest was in Hawaii.
Boarding an active warship is a unique experience, even during peacetime in a friendly port.
As I trotted up the gangplank I was greeted by a serious-looking young Chinese Marine.
It was indeed a Norinco AK that originated from the same factory as my own.
As they say, it may indeed be a small world, but you wouldnt want to paint it.
