Chuck, if you could set that rod aside, I'm probably getting the SKS Para tomorrow, but I might have to wait until Monday. What I plan on doing is just dropping a dowel rod down there and marking the length from back to where the head of the rod engages with a pencil. If it's 13", I'll gladly take the cleaning rod off your hands.

Sure Chuck! Sorry about that. To keep the thread open and on-topic, I don't have a lathe and don't really believe I have the necessary materials to modify an existing rod (even an SKS rod...I don't want to take a Chinese rod, cut it down, and then find that I made it too short).

"I hate it when "accessories" are separated from their rifles. Whether it be by accident or intentionally done. "

I agree 100%. Apparently, the guy who put my Norinco Type 84S-1 on consignment wanted to keep the bayonet. It took me four years to hunt down the correct bayonet type that had been removed from the rifle's factory packaging. And that was with two gun dealers assisting me looking through their spare AK bayonets. When Numrich got a few in this year, that was the first time I'd seen them.

Then there's the cleaning rod that would have come with my Nagant revolver, which fortunately is a bit more available (the guy said he'd misplaced the rod and would give it to me if he could find it). When I got my Ruger 10/22, the dealer assured me that everything was there except the magazine release, which was replaced by an oversize Ramline mag release. See, he in turn had been assured by the guy who sold it to him that everything was there save the factory mag release. Everything was there down to the factory packing except for one rather important thing: a magazine of any kind. The dealer felt kinda bad about that and just gave me a factory mag and discounted the Eagle 30-rounder I also bought.

"Not sure if any came with bayonets or not."

They began importing them in either early or mid 1988. So they had some time to come in with bayos attached (mine has a bayo attached).

"There was a company who modified both the spike & balde types to fit."

Norinco did it, too. They didn't start from the ground up; they just shortened the existing bayonets.

"Remember the Para is NOT a military issue weapon."

Correct. In fact, it was an American idea (much like the SKS-M and SKS-D derived from an Australian gunsmith's playing around with AK mags). A company called Midwest Ordnance figured out that making "true carbine" SKS's would bring them some profit, so they started making them and selling them for more than what the regular guns went for. Norinco picked up on this and they created their own version with the help of Midwest Ordnance. Norinco quickly dubbed their version the "Paratrooper" model so as to attract sales. Some weren't marketed as Paratroopers, though. Navy Arms, who began importation in 1990, actually called their variant (which had the bayo lug ground off) the "Cowboy Companion."

However, though not designed for any kind of military issue, one does wonder what happened to the rifles "frozen" by the 1994 import ban. The regular length SKS's initially intended for export seem to have been issued to the People's Armed Police. They seem to have everything from SKS's to AK's to Type 81's to QBZ-95's, depending on the photo you're looking at. In fact, take a look at this one I found (taken during the Urumqi Riots in the past couple months)...

http://www.welt.de/multim...mqi02_BM_Ver_852990g.jpg

Notice that that AK is lacking a cleaning rod, a bayonet lug, and any visually detectable muzzle device. It also seems to be stamped (a milled underfolder has a different disk holding the stock in place...it's flush with the washer and is larger). Ex-MAK-90, perhaps (there were a trickle of guns coming in with underfolder-type receivers, though with no actual underfolding stock fitted, all the way until the end)? If that is indeed the case and the PAP is willing to use ex-MAK-90's, I couldn't see why they'd refuse a "Paratrooper" SKS.

EDIT: How do I know the rifle in that picture isn't a modernized Type 56-1 (China's full auto underfolder stamped AK)? You may point out that it had no bayonet lug (well, most did not...a few have the underfolding type bayonets), but it did have a very conspicuous cleaning rod and retainer and an equally conspicuous muzzle nut.

"And they weren't all the exact same length, they appeared to just be done by hand, cut short enough to just fit in the stock groove."

The Chinese spike bayonets actually appear to be somewhat uniform in their length (I emphasize the word "somewhat"...they do vary in millimeters long). The Midwest Ordnance bayonets are much rougher and as previously mentioned, someone else was converting bayos post-1990. Norinco also made shortened blade bayonets for rifles converted from pre-1966 SKS's. You can find examples of these on YooperJohn's SKS page.

Incidentally, my own rifle does have a bayonet.

Well, I got my rifle today, which gave me a chance to go over its markings. It started out life as a 1972-vintage military rifle, manufactured at Factory 6602. What's interesting about this is that it's not a pin-barrel model, which is what you usually see from the four-digit factories. As per Yooper John's SKS page, it's screw-in with a short barrel lug. There also seem to have been some military markings on it that were milled away, just above and fore of the factory stamp. "SKS 7.62 Made in China" is the rifle's lone legible marking that was seemingly added for the US market. The importation mark is almost completely illegible; all I can make out is that the importer was located in Michigan. Came with the cleaning kit in the buttstock as well as the OD green canvas sling. Stamped before the Factory Code, in the same font as the serial number, is the number "72." I'm not sure if that makes my rifle's receiver date to 1972 or if further work on the rifle was done at Factory 72 (supposedly, the dating system varies from factory to factory). Stamped on the barrel lug are the letters "KO." Not sure if that's Latin alphabet or Cyrillic (seeing as they probably had Sino-Soviet parts laying around). My rifle also has the commercial style rear sling swivel, mounted under the buttstock as opposed to being mounted on the left-hand side.

The innards are covered in "runny" cosmoline, with roughly the consistency of WD-40. The weird thing is that there are power burns on some of the cosmoline...looks like the last owner tried firing it without cleaning it out. Since there's cosmoline in the firing pin channel, I imagine it was doubling a lot on him. The trigger is also pretty awful compared to my Soviet SKS's trigger (although I've been told that trigger is about the best you'll find on an SKS, so I suppose I'm spoiled). It does one weird thing: namely, I feel like I'm pulling the trigger against some sort of spring tension and then getting a "click" sound as the "spring" seemingly disengages and I complete the trigger pull. It only seems to happen when the rifle is NOT cocked. Any ideas as to what that is? Just a really bad trigger?

I'll get photos up eventually...I don't have a functioning camera right now.

EDIT: Broke it down completely and cleaned it. I'd only had the receiver cover and bolt carrier out but when going deeper...what a mess! It doesn't look like the guy cleaned it at all/had ever taken the gas piston or trigger group out! Fortunately for me, he was using non-corrosive ammunition. The trigger group looks fine...there's nothing wrong with it. I just think I got stuck with a really, really lousy trigger pull.

Chuck, the rod is indeed the correct length. Check your PM box.