This is the second one someone has posted with a "dimple" Looking at the dimple on the barrel... maybe my theory is right.....maybe it's totally wrong.. but what good is having a theory if it doesn't come out?
I think its a proof stamp...a carry over. Why.. do I think that...
The K stamp on the barrel. Well GM, whats a fricken K, got to do with a dimple..
Well, I will tell you young butterfly..
Look at most early Chinese rifles.. SKS and Type 53s, Russian SKSs and Russian Mosins, Romanian SKSs, Mosins and the M1969 trainer..maybe even a few other Communist weapons of the era, at least ones Russia had pretty much direct influence over.. The exceptions to this would be the Czechs, Yugoslavia and Albania, they wouldn't due to their crappy Cold War relationship with Russia. Typically the 2 stamps all of those, early China, Romania and Russia all share is a (K) or circle K and a (o) a circle O stamp. These are both very well documented Russian Mosin stamps.. Now, depending on the weapon, these said 2 marks could be either on the receiver or on the barrel shank, the barrel shank being the most common location.. all one has to do is look.
One other I haven't verified the 2 marks on is a Bulgarian M44.. I ain't got one.
Just one dimple.. I could let go and say..I don't know..maybe someone dropped it at the factory, got stupid with an assembly machine... two dimples starts to raise a little curiousity.... cause I'm sure the guy who dropped the first one or screwed it up...well I'm sure he wouldn't dare do that again..
What all that gibberish above boils down too...is I think the dimple is possibly remnants or a mis-stamping of the (o) stamp.
Thats my thoughts...Like I said.. who knows... wrong is what I do right.....and maybe, it's just an ancient Chinese secret..