Description
SURPLUS YUGOSLAVIAN SKS RIFLE – 22.0” BARREL 7.62×39
SURPLUS YUGOSLAVIAN SKS RIFLE – 22.0” BARREL 7.62×39
Yugoslavia’s defense industry started planning the development and production of a new self-loading rifle design during the 1950s, namely to replace the bolt-action Zastava M48 then in service with the Yugoslav People’s Army. In 1959, Yugoslavia acquired the rights to manufacture the Soviet SKS semi-automatic carbine under license. Limited production of the SKS commenced in 1961 at Preduzece 44 (Enterprise Facility 44), which was a successor to the former Yugoslav Military Technical Institute in Kragujevac and had undergone an unprecedented expansion in 1953 to better accommodate mass production of various weapons. Aside from this preliminary production run, however, no SKS carbines were produced at the Kragujevac facility again until 1964, when the weapon type finally entered serialized mass production. The earliest examples of the SKS manufactured in Kragujevac under the auspices of Zastava received the designation M59 PAP and initially resembled late Soviet pattern carbines, albeit without the chrome-lined barrels characteristic to the latter. However, the weapon’s design had been much more heavily modified by 1966 and most subsequent examples were known as the M59/66 PAP
Specifications:
- Caliber: 7.62×39
- Capacity: 5
- Action: Semi-Automatic
- Operating System: Gas
- Stock: Wood
- Sights: Adjustable Rear, Fixed Front
- Barrel: 22″
- Overall Length: 42″
- Weight: 8 lbs.
