You won't BELIEVE What I found out About my SKS!!

[@DudeInWalmart]

My uncle lived there at the time when SHTF hit the fan. People looted the armorys. He had an AK. His sister had 3. His naighbor had a T-55 which he drove around the block for fun. Some other neighbor got ahold of a horse and he road around like the guy from movie Sleeping Hollow fireing his AK up in the air. Later on some guy try to blow up a dam near by with a RPG to reclaim his confiscated land. Yep total shit show. Uncle said he doesn't watch movies cos they are boring and they don't come close to what he saw that time.

[@TheAngler2210]

hahaha how did the dam mission turn out? thats crazy!

[@kalashloy4179]

holy shit that's nuts lol, did your uncle and aunt still have their AKs? and also how's the neighbor with their T55/Type59 now?

[@STM1066]

If he gave up his AK I’m gonna slap him through the internet

[@AshGreen359]

Sounds like one hell of a party.

[@ScoobyDooby530]

Albania>Russia

[@toneprovolone9808]

An Albanian mob sks? That’s badass on so many levels!

[@MikeB128]

But it's not a WW1 Gun......:)

[@toneprovolone9808]

Mike B I know lol but to be honest it’s badass to have a Scarface sks, you got a lucky find!

[@maxstarnes4779]

@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS albanian mafia: stay right there

[@toneprovolone9808]

CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS well yeah nothing could beat the outfit or the five families it’s just cool to have a gun that was involved In The mob

[@armandpelivani3227]

Its not so romantic these story. Where use to serve in albanian army usually , you scratch your name in a rifle. And trust me , i'm albanian and use to be in military service.

[@TheMosinCrate]

Our savior Mike B, getting this evil gun off the streets.

[@MikeB128]

You're Goddamned right.

[@benniehazelwood3088]

It's not evil the one behind it is the sks it a tool

[@MrSniperdude01]

**"Gavel slams (Law & Order THEME plays).

[@theoxmountaingang2585]

@@benniehazelwood3088 it's called a joke

[@Sip_Dhit]

@@benniehazelwood3088 it's not the too the one behind it is

[@Riceball01]

Now Mike is going to get a "friendly" letter from one Leonard Rafiki kindly asking for his SKS back. Or else. 😆

[@50StichesSteel]

Great comment!😆🤣😅

[@Chris-yy5pj]

He's going to make him a offer he can't refuse

[@Taison77]

@@Chris-yy5pj or an offer he can't understand

[@barelyafan5591]

@@Taison77 mostly that then the ladder.

[@GenosGlory]

Leonard Rakipi

[@ddayinvader6487]

That’s pretty epic to be able to know so much! Love these kind of videos!!!!

[@halfdollar86]

Can you imagine if the history of every milsurp firearm was known........

[@superliga1]

My k98k would suffer from severe schizophrenia, it's a russian capture from ww2. The russians disassembled all the captured weapons, cleaned them and put them together in no particular order, so none of the serial numbers match :D

[@rushbcyka460]

@@superliga1 ouf

[@finnthecheese2846]

Hoo boy, I'd find out what my Kropatschek did and how it got to Texas, and my two Lee Enfields would probably be grateful for being desporterized

[@patrick8116]

A defaced m1891 mosin-nagant from 1916

[@bakelite3691]

Dude. Mine has the name "Alfred Shkurti" carved on it, along with some other stuff. He was also an Albanian mobster. Appears he was arrested some time ago.

[@Not_Ciel]

Is this some weird Albanian mob tradition? Carve your name into your stolen SKS after making your first kill? XD

[@n8sot]

He's out, and looking for his rifle!!!! Awesome story Mike!!!!

[@Sedan57Chevy]

That has to be one of the most interesting gun stories I've ever heard! Thanks for sharing. definitely looking forward to seeing more with this rifle.

[@_MrGiggles]

Dude! Being able to find out that much information is crazy! Props to everyone involved for bringing this interesting info to light.

[@WIDOWVII]

I love carved up stocks like this from back in the day. Guns already tell a story, but having the carved in pictures/names only enhance it. Hopefully I'll come across some stuff like this some day.

[@stacybrown3714]

Wow...we all say "if only it could talk". I guess you scored one that can!

[@AshGreen359]

My Yugo SKS had Cyrillic all over the stock and a great big heart carved on it. Wasn't really useable.

[@robotbjorn4952]

Awww! That's sweet!

[@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge]

You know what it said? Or have a picture of it? I'm from Yugoslavia so I would love to read what it said.

[@xb0xisbetter]

Nice score. If only we could all find this much backstory on every milsurp that drops into our laps. I have one of the older 1950's Chinese SKS rifles, blade bayonet. There are some stains on that bayonet that I cannot remove, even with a copper brush. It makes you wonder, and appreciate the potential gravity of the lives these things have lived.

[@MikeB128]

Yeah it's crazy. I'm glad they can't talk, as I wouldn't want to know the stories of some of mine.

[@fattmouth7715]

I know Lenard. He said he wants his rifle back.

[@dudemcx1077]

Robert Patter it's a joke!

[@VS-ff4ez]

Every gun is a witness to history. Its freaking cool that you found out the history behind this one. Not only about him but also the breakup of the country and breakdown of the military. This gun has a lot of history. Great find!!!

[@alexm.h.2379]

It's cool how you could trace it back. It's always been a thought of mine of how awesome it would be to trace back used surplus to the original user(s).

[@kevinbachant8811]

Forgotten Weapons hosted by Elvis

[@matthews88chris53]

Elvis had like 37 handguns bro

[@Adirondneck]

That's awesome. I checked out a crate of these at a local gun shop. I found one with the name "Enver" carved in it, who was an Albanian politician..also a 10mil serial

[@majorgudan6567]

Dylan Latour Albanian Dictator*

[@Nick-ys4py]

Love the look and history of the sks. They have so much character. Ive unfortunately sold many of the ones i used to own. Pay 80-125$ for em 15 years ago. Now i wanna collect geez

[@TEHSTONEDPUMPKIN]

Very interesting story. Beautiful gun too! I love my military surplus like that, banged up, and worn. Gives them more character in my opinion.

[@45lc48]

i just bought back a chinese sks from a second cousin that he bought from my father when he was dealing surplus firearms in the 90's. the sks is literally brand NEW! still has the cosmoline every where on it. 300$ seems like alot for a sks but man i feel like i stole a gold bar.

[@halopersin]

My Albanian chinese type 56 also had trench art. The city Q. Stalin was carved and below was the name trosk. according to the Albanian subreddit this was some town named after Stalin and was basically a military base. Also trosk is a really common Albanian name so my rifle isn’t nearly as traceable as yours but it would be nice to get more info for mine.

[@sokolisufaj2284]

The name of the city was and now again is Kucove. During the communism was named Qyteti Stalin, Stalin City. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku%C3%A7ov%C3%AB_Aerodrome Read carefully the name because trosk is not an Albanian name.

[@Runner-fz5qg]

Man I found your video while I was struggling to get my sks mag back it for what ever reason it wouldn’t settle back in so I decided to take a break and watch this because history interests me mad bam I got it back in thanks for the good luck in getting the old sks back together.

[@ryantornai945]

I have an early blade Type 56 SKS that I believe also was sent to Albania. It has "DND" carved on the stock along with a few gashes

[@tacosandfrenchfries4561]

Cool video. I really enjoy knowing that type of history about a firearm

[@MarshalZhukov]

Cool vid and rifle. Don't have anything quite like that, but have had a couple items in the past where I was able to contact the original owner of the item. The first time it happened was with a Swiss K31. One of the "troop tags" was left under the butt plate. I was able to track the person down by their name and where they were living. He was quite surprised when I made an international phone call to him. We exchanged emails and sent some pictures, and he confirmed it was the rifle that was issued to him sometime back in the 1980s. He said he had returned it to the depot, and no one removed the tag. It was in his own handwriting too. It sat at the depot until it got imported in to the US. The other item was a WWII Luger holster. I was digging through these boxes of Luger holsters looking for one to fit my Russian Captured Luger in to. The very last holster in the very last box I ended up buying. It had some holes in the flap, and some Panzer SS skull outlines and holes from where someone poked them through the leather flap a long time ago and they sat there. While there was still no pins or anything on the outside of the holster, the back of it had an etched in design of the US Army eagle logo, along with a name, serial number and unit. So I googled the unit, found a neat PDF file of the unit history, and in the names of people that were in the unit, sure enough here was this guy listed in Madison WI. I called local to Madison for a listing by the name, and sure enough there was. I was connected and started talking to the guy. He had the holster with a gun in it when he originally had it, but ended up giving it to one of his friends on the train in 1947 when he came back from Europe. There was a piece of cloth jammed down in the extra magazine pouch on the outside of the holster. He has since passed away I found out later, after emailing with his daughter a few times about it some years ago. He was very surprised when I asked him about his unit and serial number. Both super cool instances to be able to talk to someone with these items they had in their hands once upon a time.

[@realtyrocks1969]

17 years is a long time. He served his time much like you would in the USA. I know an American attorney that killed a man, was sent to prison for 15 years, served his time and is a good citizen now.

[@cooperdavis9663]

Civil unrest? Sounds like my kind of party!

[@usna98]

Thanks for sharing. I also received one with a name carved into the stock. Did some googling which only confirmed that it was Albanian and a somewhat common name.

[@johndowe7003]

it was probably imported to usa by the mob lol, gun smuggling is pretty common in albania

[@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge]

Into the US? I can believe smuggling it to other shithole countries like ex-Yugoslavia but to the US?

[@dimestoreharry3344]

Wow, now that's a different kind of provenance......That's a keeper, for sure !!

[@fastwest433]

Look at all the “orbs” flying around! Definitely a haunted piece! Just kiddin bro. Nice catch with a cool story 👍🏻

[@joesotelo9905]

I seen those too. Good eye.

[@MikeB128]

It's just dust. I have no carpeting in my house.

[@George-li2mb]

A lot of surplus rifles aren’t that interesting but that one is a treasure trove a history good investment mike 👍

[@kalashloy4179]

almost got the factory name correct lol, the She of Jian She is more sounded like the She of Sherman and tht's background of the SKS was just waaaaay freaking cool

[@Destroyer4790]

Wow, that's some pretty crazy history. Way cooler than a pristine example.

[@toddnesbitt3113]

Outstanding, great job with the research! Brings history to life when you can hold and shoot surplus.

[@tactical_maverick]

Holy shit. That’s a hell of a story! All I know about Chinese SKS is it was my dad’s and he had it since the 80’s.

[@thatguyoverthere9634]

You do realize this means the owner is still alive

[@MikeB128]

Yeah, of course, he's me.

[@DanaWebb2017]

That's a pretty interesting souvenir with a sorted past.

[@claytonlewis8799]

That's an amazing story. I knew these were in Albania for many years but I didn't know they were looting military depots. I have a arsenal 26 1966

[@MatthewBaileyBeAfraid]

My Chinese SKS has some Chinese and Vietnamese graffiti on it. The Chinese markings are on the stock, and they say something along the lines of "Fei Yu Loves Wang Yam" (The verb is a bit ambiguous, as it isn’t the explicit word for "Love," but means something closer to "adores." The Vietnamese writing is on the Magazine that came with it (which is not its original, nor is the stock - only the receiver, bolt, bolt-carrier, and barrel remain the original), and it is a collection of communist platitudes, and anti-American slogans that were popular among the Vietcong. It has the typical "Workers of the World Unite," and "We are the Means of Production." But also contains something that is along the lines of "Death to Imperialist Pig Americans." I should probably take it out of storage and make sure it is still OK. It has been about six months since I shot it (I have had to use detachable mags to shoot it, as the fixed-Magazine with the graffiti on it doesn’t feed properly). And the detachable magazines are freakishly hard to remove, or fix in place. I probably need to sand out a bit of the magazine-well in the stock.

[@jaydendrennan9567]

I recently bought S&W 1917 that was previously owned by John Wilkes Booth. At least that’s what the older gentleman at the gun show told me….

[@samadams8355]

I have one from that same batch of Albanian imports, but I wasn't lucky enough (if that's the right word) to have a gangster's name on mine. Just a lot of marks from rough handling, but the bore is in great shape and it shoots very well. It really would be interesting to hear Mr. Rakipi's side of the story, whether he accepts guilt, or thinks of himself as some kind of freedom fighter. Vlorë was the epicenter of the rebellion in 1997, which started because the government encouraged people to put money in private investment plans with suspiciously high returns. About 2/3rds of them invested in these plans, which were backed by politicians, business leaders, and banks, and they all turned out to be Ponzi schemes. Growing up under Communism didn't give people a good idea of realistic expectations for financial instruments, so they lost everything. There was a popular uprising, arsenals were looted, and gangs did take control of some cities as the government collapsed.

[@rickbennett105]

This is the kind of thing that makes Mil surp collecting so awesome!!

[@VintageIronArt]

When I type "Leonard Rakipi" in a FB search the #3 hit that comes up is literally a guy who lives in Berat Albania and appears to be slightly older than me, so the math fits your story. You should hit him up and see if it's the same guy. Because.......history!

[@Railhog2102]

Being chinese myself this SKS is special and a one of a kind find

[@50StichesSteel]

Dont get upset over a rifle possibly being used to kill people...For one that's what they are designed to do and it's just a tool in a toolbox so no harm against owning it either...That's actually one of the cooler stories that I've heard around an older rifle...Hold on to this rifle brother

[@MikeB128]

Not upset over it, I just am not a fan of violence in general.

[@50StichesSteel]

@@MikeB128 I can definitley understand where you're coming from but that's the name of the game you know?

[@MikeB128]

I'm aware, trust me.

[@nemicofitid3617]

My uncle who lived in Vlore took an sks and some granades to protect from the mobsters and then at the end of the unrest he gave it back to the army since his brother was in the navy at that time and the army wouldn’t get prosecuted

[@hellomynameis2767]

Mike, I have a romanian dong grip I brought back from Iraq that I took off of a enemy AKM that has a slavic work carved in it. I always wondered how a balkan war relic ended up in Iraq. This answered my question that I have been trying to research since 2009. Thanks balkan organized crime syndicates!

[@MikeB128]

Yeah they sold a fuckton of weapons and material to Iraq.

[@marvinsmall5002]

What a story. Hey its its safe hands now. Thank you.

[@rickypennington5831]

I own Chinese, Russian and Albanian SKS love them all

[@TartanJack]

Very cool. Kudos for tracking down the provenance.

[@k.w.1775]

Damn that's crazy. Never expected it to be named to a criminal lol

[@MikeB128]

Me either. This is a first lol.

[@RicTic66]

I would imagine 17 years in an Albanian prison would be like a life sentence in US even with all the lack of human rights in American prisons.

[@daspiper8941]

I think it is a interesting story. Knowing a bit of history for an old surplus gun is cool.

[@aflutes1706]

That’s super cool! Thanks for sharing!

[@johnh1001]

I really like your video . You have done so much research to get all that info . I don't think that most gun owners would know the names of all the different manufacturing plants or the names of the cities they were in . That's a good bunch of work that you did there . It's similar to but not the same as the story of the famous Bren Gun. It was being built in Toronto , Ontario in Canada . One of the buildings where the Bren Guns were built is still standing now in 2020 . The back stops where they test fired the Bren Guns are still standing now in 2020 . If you are ever in the Toronto area drop in at the old site and walk the grounds , it's very interesting just like your video .

[@JonDoe-ef4tz]

That whole region of Europe was a total shitshow for that whole decade not just Albania.

[@tberkoff]

You should contact him and get the full story.

[@MikeB128]

Yeah, contact someone with a rap sheet that long, and is probably still in a gang. I'll get right on that lol.

[@tberkoff]

I'm sure he has been rehabilitated. Probably only doing petty crimes now. You can use this ace guy as your middle man.

[@MikeB128]

@@tberkoff I'll see what I can do. Just for you.

[@JeffPhillips2014]

well Leonard must get around, yours is the 3rd rifle I have seen personally with "Leonard" carved on the stock

[@Mosin-lf7wl]

OK, this is way cooler than the troop tag if found under the butt stock plate on my swiss rifle!

[@cbcwoodworking6312]

I Have a 1956 SKS with a name and the same town name on it. Mine has about 13 names on it with the exact same town name.

[@jeffengland9913]

I have one that came from the country of georgia.it h as a catholic double cross carved in the stock.also barrel is stamped 762 by 59.but its actually 762 by39.i got mine right from the dealer who had bought 200 and picked them up in Norfolk va straight from the ship back in the 90s.

[@sidecaster]

What a great conversation piece, I'd definitely take it out and plink with it every once in awhile

[@terrygrossmann2295]

Interesting story. It might be worth looking the gentlemen up and getting the story.

[@MikeB128]

Eh, I'm not too fond of trying to contact someone with a rap sheet that long and intense, and who's probably still in a gang lol.

[@rileyfarrell180]

Ace Ventura gun detective

[@cilverback1]

so I just cleaned up an SKS that also had somebody's name on it with an Albanian city in the carving wonder if its the same gang wouldn't that be interesting, Tom.

[@darthtruk7206]

Awesome! I wish I could find out info about my SKS' and my Mosin.... Very cool Mike

[@ckim6400]

That rifle has a lot of character worn in it! It's a tool it has no soul.........

[@williamlewis5688]

I bought a SKS back in the early 90s they were dirt cheap they were around 70 bucks but this certain one I had turned out to be fully automatic loaded up a 50 mag pulled the trigger and holy shit it emptied it in a few seconds

[@davidherrera6885]

I just picked up a Yugo sks that has some trench art, initials and someone's name carved into the stock.

[@kaylababson5098]

Love my SKS! :-) I hope this guy doesn't see your vid and show up wanting his rifle back lol

[@BEhistoricStudios]

17 years in an Albanian prison, with good behaviour youll die quick and clean instead of somewhere half way down your sentence or worse getting released after 17 years old and right into a family blood feud - Vendetta. And yes SKS were mostly used in blood feuds and robberies because of its intense and super loud blast that sets people into shock and the sheer size that outmatched the ak47 and the mp40. They were also used by the police, Story is probably true

[@eriprenga5042]

as i was watching this video I was drawn to the name written on the side of sks, i am 100% sure this sks had an albanian and was used in albania, the name written on the side is of a person from Vlora city in albania

[@majorgudan6567]

I’m albanian, I can back up all these facts. They used to have land mines and bullet shells laying on he streets, and my brother once found an rpg rocket and helped clean his uncles ak, at age 4.

[@dnhman]

Kool story no matter what. How many of us would not want to know the history of our milsurps

[@jamesw4445]

You got a good one. It has milled trigger group.

[@MikeB128]

I'm certainly happy with it. It shoots great as well!

[@danmorgan3685]

That's a hell of a story! It's only "cool" because of the time and distance. Note the quotes there.

[@steelyemry9612]

very cool! thanks for sharing! always super interesting to hear storys behind rifles.

[@richardpate4732]

Nice piece Mike! Enjoyed the story.

[@VCBird6]

Wonder what the odds are of the original owner seeing this video and itching to get his old murder piece back? O.o

[@Douglas-Ops]

Wow, what a story, incredible kismet getting the research done. This is why I find Milsurp fascinating. Thanks for the follow up.

[@Guns_and_Outdoors_Channel]

Fantastic Story! It’s so cool that you were able to get someone to help you track down some of the history of the rifle. 👍

[@Lord_RavnFar_Tannerwise]

So are we going to completely ignore the orbs flying around in the video? I used to own a mosin nagant that everytime we took pictures or videos of it orbs and faces showed up i. Them around the rifle

[@MikeB128]

Honestly, it's probably dust on this video. That's not really how negative energy and ghosts/soul stuff works anyway, but that's an entirely different subject :)

[@xb0xisbetter]

@@MikeB128 I agree on the dust after re-watching (I didn't even notice it initially), but I do feel that there's enough evidence of orbs for it to at least be a plausible phenomenon. 90% of all of the supposed orbs are just dust, bugs, headlights/lens flares, etc, though, in my opinion. I have seen a self-luminous orb myself in this very basement, in a room with no likely source of light contamination. If you have more than a passing interest in the paranormal, and are ever in Washington county around Halloween, check out the Washington County Courthouse/Jailhouse ghost tour. 1850's construction on the jailhouse, courthouse is 1880s, and looks like a freaking castle. That jailhouse is haunted as hell. We got heavy EMF spikes, with a simultaneous infrared thermometer-verified cold spot, then a (possible) photograph of an orb heading down the basement stairs just as the EMF and temperature readings started to normalize just in the second or third room we entered. There's a lot of airborne dust near the vents in that building, which made me write off most of the "orb" pictures, but that one was near no vents, and didn't look like most dust particles I have seen, but may have still just been an interesting coincidence, since none of the previous 4-5 pictures in that same spot contained anything. As far as EMF contamination goes, I believe they had all power shut off in that building that night, but I don't know for sure what may have still been live. The rest of the building offered up plenty of relevant/responsive/interrelated words from various ghostbox apps on multiple phones, a few of which the guide could connect to reported apparition sightings in the building.

[@Goomba_N64]

Really I’ve never thought about that if you buy a surplus weapon it probably was used in a conflict at one point in time and it probably killed some people.

[@benbauer1257]

I'm going to wager that my Swiss 96/11 probably was not

[@fredilenie]

Very interesting story. I wonder how it came to USA and how the seller sold it out with his name on it. For this SKS with the name there is two options. 1 - if the person kept it during patrolling around the military base and in the SKS is a serial number, this means every Army have in charge a riffle, and for to not massing with others he wrote his name. 2 - In 1997 we have had the most bad moments here in Albania after the pyramidal Banks who stole almost all the money from the people and after the Banks claimed the fail then people was out of control for taking everything from the State properties, even guns..!!! the military bases was opened with force from the people and the Police stations was burned out because of the unlimited number of of People who lose they money and they houses. Maybe this Guy have had this SKS in 1997 or in his military. In 1997 was more used the AK 47 at any time here, the SKS was delivered all in Kosovo, this means that the People sold this SKS about 10$...!!! But I'm sure this Guy owned it during his Military Service and he will be happy to see his Gun again.

[@elvaidrexhaj4652]

I have seen a lot of these back home but I can’t remember that much because I was young. It was pretty common by us to write the name on some of the rifles. Cool story though

[@DonyaLane]

Cool story. I subscribed. I'm surprised that it's actually an Albanian, because they have an odd orange-ish stock, and their bayonets are blued (yours could be a replacement bayonet, of course). I also thought that their gas piston covers ran the entire length and covered it entirely. I noticed yours does not. Anyway, it's got lots of mojo!

[@MikeB128]

It's not an Albanian made SKS. It's one of the many Chinese Type 56s that were sent to Albania as Aid in the 1960s and 70s.

[@DonyaLane]

@@MikeB128 , ah yes... I think you had said something about that, but I was probably getting confused. Anyway, I'm glad your channel showed up in my queue!

[@martywhitevan]

thanks for posting this great story!

[@MG-wi1eq]

Very interesting story and nice rifle man.

[@miahutman4615]

That's cool that your SKS has Albanian writing on it

[@AT-xr8qh]

I have one of those Albanian chinese support sks’. It also has a name carved in it, but I don’t have anyone on the inside to help me find anything -_-

[@theshamelessifidel]

I did 1 year in the military in Albania and we had a lot of carved ak47 on the buttocks. Except artilleryman no other military branches used SKS. The communist government used to train people with SKS. Everything thing else you said could be true

[@jamesw4445]

"Except artilleryman no other military branches used SKS" - Was it same back in 60s-70s? Those SKS' were donated by Chinese government in late 60s. At the time, ak47 were rare.

[@sokolisufaj2284]

Not true. The Karabina model 56. i.e. SKS was the most common weapon in the Albanian Army. I did the military in the Navy and only few sailors had an AK-47, the rest of us had as a personal weapon the SKS.

[@theshamelessifidel]

@@sokolisufaj2284 I was in the Military from 1995-1996. I have a lot of friends and family members that did the Military service in different branches and the only branches I was told and seen use it was artillery and of course the nation guard you don't have to name that. I'm not sure when you did the Military service but I do believe you and I didn't know that

[@edoardomatarazzo6537]

I have an SKS with a great deal of trench art is there a way to get you some photos of the art?

[@alandustin7522]

I hear some bayonets actually have a comb attached..

[@FargoMarc]

Nice video, Mike!

[@jimrodriguez8047]

Very interesting to be able to discover the history!

[@DailyDriverGarage]

That is a nice battle worn sks, with an awesome story

[@dieterkopf9313]

You cleaned real good