UNKNOWN RUSSIAN SKS HELP NEEDED

[summum]

Good day,

I have purchased a Russian SKS serial number "OT1813" where the date is not stamped on the back top cover beside the refurbished marking. It is not part of the letter series being that on the left hand side we see only the SN "OT1813" that is not followed to the right by one of the three Russian letter followed by a star.

It is all matching including the stock with the SN above

What year can it be?
Why was it refurbished this way?
How can it be identified?


It is very interesting and I would hope to clarify this mystery with your help. Below is a link to all the pictures I've taken after receiving it today.

https://ibb.co/album/VYzZ2d

Thank you to all that will provide their input on the matter 

 

[Phosphorus32]

Welcome!

OT is an unusual letter block so the year of manufacture can’t be determined from that information alone. Detailed pictures of your SKS, especially the SN on the receiver and receiver cover and full length side views would be a minimum starting point.


The most likely explanation is that it received a blank (letter series) receiver cover during refurbishment. The serial number on the back of the receiver cover would have been scrubbed and the serial number of the receiver on your gun stamped atop the scrubbed area.

[jstin2]

The handguard latch should narrow down the year of manufacture and I agree with Phosphorus32 about the cover. Add in the gas port to even further narrow down the year.

[summum]

Thank you for Welcoming me

Again I appreciate your input and I will add a picture of the left side of the receiver shortly.

One thing that I wanted to bring to everyone attention which I forgot to do so in my initial inquiry.... is that the lever to remove the top gas assembly shown in my pictures looks like from the earlier model of SKS. What can we understand from this?

[running-man]

That stock looks like a classic Westrifle refinish to me though I don't recognize that mag rivet as being Westrifle.  Receiver cover looks heavily ground and restamped, I don't believe it to be original to the gun. 

Form the feature list, we can narrow it down a bit:

Gas tube takedown lever is early '54 or earlier
Receiver cover takedown lever is '50 or later.
Bolt is '51 or later.
Gas block is '52 or later.
Receiver round is mid '52 or later.

Enveloping these leads me to think it's a mid-'52 to early-'54.

P32 is correct with the OT prefix, it doesn't help as there is only one single other OT entry in the database.  Interestingly enough, it also has a blank receiver cover though it has the 1st GRAU stamp on it:










In general, we have relatively very few '53's in the database compared to '52s and '54s, good likelihood that it is a '53 from the lack of other examples.

[summum]

Wow seriously many interesting elements that you brought up which is things I'm unaware being new in this. I will look into it further and thank you for bringing these thing up.

[running-man]

There is so much to learn about these things it's downright ridiculous.  Once you think you know something, another piece of data comes in to throw your worldview on its head!  Beware of anyone that speaks in absolutes when it comes to the SKS.

I assume you're from Canada?  What's the story on how you obtained this one?  Does it have recent Russian export marks under the wood?

There is a group of Westrifle guns (typically the 'rarer' ones: '49's, '55's, '53 Izhevsks etc.) that we would consider 'humped^*' guns.  Whether it was Westrifle that did the work or the exporter/wholesaler that they got them from is unknown, but whoever did it got a little carried away after a while and started applying cartouches to laminate stocks on '49's and also applying 1956, 1957, and 1958 dates to various stocks that had no business having them.  The result is a pattern that's easy to notice when you have enough examples:











^*Humped is a gun modified, restored, or altered to make it appear like it is something (typically much more valuable) that it is not.

[summum]

I assume you're from Canada?  What's the story on how you obtained this one?  Does it have recent Russian export marks under the wood?

Yes I am from Canada and I have purchased this rifle from a person in Alberta that purchased it from his boss that had it on display in his office....not something we can really do in Canada, go figure. I see no refurbished marks on the stock nor any importation markings looking at the rifle thoroughly.

P32 is correct with the OT prefix, it doesn't help as there is only one single other OT entry in the database.  Interestingly enough, it also has a blank receiver cover though it has the 1st GRAU stamp on it:

WOW  still amaze that this is the ONLY 2nd OT SN found? Was the year better determined with the first OT SN one. (Thank you for sharing the pic's)

On the right side of the butt stock I have the number "7" stamped and another marking which I added the pictures below.

From my original picture group, I have enlarge the right hand side of the butt stock because of a square stamp which I'm unable to


Below Stamp on the right side of stock



This is a beautiful mystery that I would like to be able to refine having so many aspect of the rifle that were discovered up to now.

Thank you again for your knowledge support