Simonov’s Karabin
The SKS is a peculiar thing.
The foyer of 2e RPC Colonial Paras, in Algeria showing the SKS rifles they took from the Egyptians when the unit jumped on Port Fouad during the Suez Crisis in 1956. They were the first example of the weapon captured in the West.
One of the last semi-auto-only military rifles produced (as late as the 1970s) it was fielded at the same time as the Kalashnikov, is still regularly encountered wherever the latter is found and is arguably why the 7.62x39mm round became popular in the U.S in the first place. Why? Because an estimated 1 million of these guns were imported to the states from China alone in the 1980s and likely even more than that from the former USSR and Yugoslavia since 1991.
That led the gun from looking like this:
To this, once given the Red White and Blue treatment by companies like SG Works and TAPCO:
Anyways, more in my column on the subject of the SKS’s curious history in my column at Guns.com.
East German Karabiner-S : Extremely rare. Slot cut into back of stock for pull-through sling, similar to the slot in a Karabiner . No storage area in back of stock or storage for cleaning rod under barrel.