So, there were an estimated 16,950 produced. When I received the package imagine my surprise when the 1969 turned out to actually be a previously unseen rifle from 1979!Įstimated production of Albanians over the years is shown in this chart, with figures gathered and put together by Glen Burton:Ĭurrent opinion is that the undated models MAY be rifles produced in either 1975 or 1980, but this has yet to be proven. The salesman listed off the years and said there was a 1969 included. A couple of months ago I bought out J+G Sales when they had 5 Albanians in stock. Until recently, I had never seen a 1979 rifle. There is some debate about what happened during the years 1972-1975 but I have never seen or heard of Albanian SKS's from this time period. The Albanian SKS was manufactured at the Umgramsh Factory from 1967-1971 and again from 1976-1979. It was known locally by the name "July 10th Rifle", after Albania's Independence Day. The Albanian SKS was believed to be an early Simonov design that was never manufactured by other European countries.
I have samples from every year of production and have photographed and catalogued them, along with my other SKS carbines at: I have been collecting Albanian SKS carbines for some time now and currently have around 50 in my personal collection. In this article I will attempt to provide some history and observation of this weapon. It is made of milled steel and fires the standard AK 7.62x39 mm cartridge like all SKS, but is different from other country's SKS in several ways. The Albanian SKS is now the rarest of all "imported" varieties of SKS found in the world, outside of the North Korean, East German, and Vietnamese models that were war "bring backs", with very few in existence.
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