Leather Ammunition Pouch: Albanian?

[jmaurer]

Folks:
In some pre-holiday cleanup about the house, I came across this puzzler that I'd forgotten. Mods, I hope this is in the right place, so please move as appropriate. Anyway, the crude, coarse stitching and (what I guess to be) relative poor quality leather (extra thick to make up for lack of quality) remind me of Albanian-produced copies of Chicom stuff. What do you think? Perhaps the unusual contour of the rear of the top where it's sewn to the body of the pouch may be a clue.

[firstchoice]

That's an interesting pouch, jmaurer. Do you remember about what year you picked it up? That may be a clue in associating it with the Albanian SKS and the various years of shipments that came in. It does have the features known on Alby milsurp accessories. But I'm not that well versed in the Alby pouches.

Thanks for sharing!

firstchoice

[jmaurer]

I don't quite remember, but I think it may have been when there were piles of pouches from the former Yugoslavia everywhere. One local gun show dealer had lots of SKS-related gear from various sources, including from Albania. I snagged a couple of unissued (wood and horrible plastic toggles) Albanian chest pouches and slings from him, as well as a couple of the chintzy camo fabric Yugoslav stripper clip pouches-perhaps 10 years ago? Like everybody, I really didn't think much of it at the time, but I'm glad I didn't get rid of it. Anyway, I just don't remember this pouch, but the leather seems like what I remember on the slings. I'll have to dig them out and see if I remember correctly.

[Larry D.]

Anything on the inside?

I really like that one.

[running-man]

Stitching is very indicative of Albanian workmanship in my opinion.  Chinese stitching is a bit neater and the rivets I've seen are solid not hollow. 

This guy has the same pouch and think it's an Alby: 

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/831696076

[jmaurer]

Running-man, I noticed another similarity between mine and the one you linked. It looks like both these pouches were constructed using the same saddler's technique of tacking the leather to a wooden form while stitching various edges (the tack holes can be seen in both pouches).

My visits have been sporadic of late, but is there a location on the board to discuss accessories that are solely related to the SKS?

[Loose}{Cannon]

Yup...  I have one of these around here somewhere. 

[TEKMIRKO]

RM: Attached are 3 photos of my pouch.