Chinese AK from Vietnam Sets World Record at RIA Auction

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A battlefield-proven Chinese language Sort 56 with Vietnam Battle bring-back provenance simply made historical past, hammering down for $246,750 at Rock Island Public sale Firm’s early December sale.

The worth marks a world file for a Sort 56 machine gun. And the story behind this rifle explains why collectors pushed it into the stratosphere.

China’s Sort 56, produced with Soviet tooling within the Nineteen Fifties, grew to become some of the recognizable rifles of the Chilly Battle. It armed communist forces worldwide. However nowhere was it extra iconic than Vietnam, the place it appeared within the arms of the North Vietnamese Military and Viet Cong.

Hundreds have been captured throughout the struggle, and a choose few made it again to the US via the 1968 NFA Amnesty, legally registered time capsules of the battle.

This rifle, serial quantity 9472501, was one among them.

Registered throughout the November 1968 amnesty as a “Chinese language AK-47,” it got here from Lieutenant Colonel Frank Bliss Wolcott III. Wolcott was a U.S. Marine artillery officer who served in Vietnam and fought within the ferocious Battle of Hue throughout the Tet Offensive.

Whereas the precise circumstances of acquisition aren’t recorded, Wolcott would have had no scarcity of alternatives to get well a battlefield pickup Sort 56. He introduced it house, registered it correctly, and stored the documentation, which nonetheless accompanies the gun immediately.

The rifle later transferred to Wolcott’s spouse in 2024 following his passing, after which to the consignor who introduced it to public sale this month. That unbroken provenance line, mixed with amnesty registration and wartime connection, made it a standout even earlier than bidding started.

Technically, that is an early-pattern forged-receiver Sort 56 with integral trunnion, Soviet-style entrance sight base and gasoline block, and matching serial numbers on the main elements.

The rifle lacks the basic Chinese language “pig-sticker” bayonet, however retains its right manufacturing facility marks, together with the Manufacturing facility 66 triangle-66 brand. Seen harm on the buttstock and buttplate suggests the rifle as soon as absorbed a strike from shrapnel or a small-caliber projectile. Battle scars that solely deepen its authenticity.

Situation charges excellent, with about 50% unique blue end remaining. It features a canvas sling, two further magazines, and its unique NFA paperwork.

As a completely transferable Class III NFA machine gun categorized as a Curio & Relic, the rifle already occupied rarefied air. Add its Vietnam provenance, and its proprietor’s historical past, and it’s no shock collectors drove it to a brand new world file.

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