Starting in 1960, China ran a program to develop an infantry rifle that would combine the accuracy of the SKS with the firepower of the AK. The result was the Type 63, which used the general layout of the SKS along with its short stroke gas piston and an SKS-like fire control system (with fully a...

One of the first new weapons adapted and used by the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army after the Communist victory in the Chinese civil war was the Type 50, a copy of the Soviet PPSh-41. The story of its manufacture begins at the Japanese occupied Mukden Arsenal. It was briefly occupied by the Sov...

Palmetto State Armory (PSA) makes a really wide variety of different guns, but one that they came out with a little while back that appealed to me in particular is their "Spiker". This is a reproduction of the Chinese Type 56 stamped AK with a permanently attached underfolding bayonet. These rifl...

We're very excited to take a privileged look at the Type 64, an integrally suppressed submachine gun designed in China in the early 1960s. Taking several design elements from other Combloc small arms, it fired a special subsonic, spitzer 7.62x25mm round. Check out Matt's accompanying article abou...

The UK has recently procured some 2,400 7.62x39mm AK-pattern rifles to aid training of Ukrainian troops in the UK. In the latest images released by the UK Ministry of Defence we can now confirm that these rifles include previously unseen Chinese Type 56-1s. Be sure to check out our accompanying a...

Watch latest videos, sometimes even early releases! Sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hkbJYn Shooting the Type 56 Assault Rifle (Chinese AK) out to 500 yards with iron sights. Parameters: 2x shots per target from 150y to 500y, segmented per 50 yds. Rifle was Norinco Type 56 from Chine...

Watch latest videos, sometimes even early releases! Sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hkbJYn [or] slateblackindustries (dot) com 👉 Newsletter The Dragunov SVD is one of the most iconic Sniper/DMR rifles to exist, but is it good? What makes it tick? What are the differences between the...

Watch latest videos, sometimes even early releases! Sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hkbJYn [or] slateblackindustries (dot) com 👉 Newsletter How does the Dragunov SVD stack up against western DMR type rifles? How does the Russian and the Chinese variants differ from each other? There...

Watch latest videos, sometimes even early releases! Sign up for the newsletter: http://eepurl.com/hkbJYn [or] slateblackindustries (dot) com 👉 Newsletter Watch latest videos, sometimes even early releases! Sign up for the newsletter : https://www.slateblackindustries.com/service/newsletter/ The C...

Interested in more pistols from the Chinese warlord era? Check out my book "Pistols of the Warlords", now in stock and shipping at:

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One of the professional factory-made Chinese warlord-era copies of the FN Model 1900 came from the Nanjing Arse...

The General Liu rifle (named for its designer – it never received an official designation that we know of) was China’s closest approach to an indigenous self-loading infantry rifle before World War II. Mechanically it used the same principles as the Danish Bang rifle – a muzzle cup captured some ...

The Type 64 is a dedicated suppressed pistol first introduced in 1965 and used in the Vietnam War. It uses a rimless version of the .32 ACP cartridge (7.65x17mm) in a 9-round Makarov like magazine. Despite outward similarity to the Makarov (especially the grip), the design is wholly unique intern...

The C96 Mauser was a very popular handgun in China in the 1920s and 30s, which naturally led to a substantial number of domestically-produced copies of it. These ran the full range of quality, from dangerous to excellent. This particular example falls into the middle, appearing to be a pretty fai...

The Norinco 313 is the semiauto commercial variation of the Type 81 LMG. The Type 81 was a small arms family of rifle and LMG developed to finally replace the SKS and RPD in Chinese military service. When the Chinese and Soviets parted ways, China was making milled AKs, but did not have the stamp...

This the fairly modern Chinese CS/LS2 - the 9mm Parabellum export model of the 5.8mm QCW-05 submachine gun. It takes most of its design cues form the QBZ-95 rifle, as you can see form the grip layout. It is a bullpup, with a right-ride ejection port that cannot be swapped. It is a bullpup style d...

During World War Two, Canada supplied some 73,000 Sten guns (made by the Long Branch arsenal) to Chinese Nationalist forces in an effort to help them fight the Japanese. These Stens were standard MkII pattern guns, chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge. However, many of these were eventua...

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One of the most common types of AK rifle in existence today is the Chinese Type 56 in its several variations, although very few of those rifles are in the United States in authentic full-auto form. This particular one was captured by a US soldier in the Vietnam War, who brought it back and regist...

Many unique and interesting pistols were made in China in the 1920s and 1930s, and this pistol is a good example of them. It is not a copy of any specific Western handgun, although mechanically it works like a Mauser 1914 pocket pistol. It is chambered for .32ACP (the other common caliber for the...

The Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless was a very popular pistol for civilians - it was compact, comfortable, reliable, and exceptionally modern for its day. The initial production was all in .32ACP, but 5 years after it was introduced a variant in .380 caliber was introduced - the model 1908 Pocket Ham...

This particular Chinese pistol is a great example of all the elements of a proper Chinese Mystery Pistol: sights that don't function, gibberish markings, mechanical derivation from the Browning 1900, aesthetic elements form the C96 Broomhandle Mauser, and clearly handmade parts. However, it is a ...

With the commercial success of the semiauto Type 56S AK rifles in the US, Norinco looked for other options for export rifles to sell. Given the use of the 5.56x45mm cartridge in the US, an AK chambered for that round was an obvious answer. Norinco did not have the technical data package to make t...

One of the biggest arsenals in China in the 20th century was the Hanyang Arsenal, built in 1890 by the Qing dynasty to help modernize China’s military. The fist rifle to be made there was a copy of the German Gewehr 88 commission rifle (designated Type 88), which began production in 1895. A few c...

Today we are looking at a high-end C96 Mauser pattern sporting carbine made by the Tsingtao Ironworks. Only a few dozen of these were made, and this one survives in excellent condition. It is a good example of how some guns in Warlord China were made by skilled craftsmen with excellent tools and ...