Yugo 59/66A1 new? New to me.

[Thundersnow70]

So to make a long story short I have a Tula BBQ letter gun. Personal reasons make me pause to shoot it. So I was on the hunt for another and recently found it. An auction gun that I bought right, site unseen. It was hard to tell condition from the pics but like I said the price was right. Upon pickup I'm wondering if it's ever been shot. It shows no sign of every having a round in it or through it imho. A quick search of the numbers led me to 80/81 build year. Is it even plausible that this rifle has never been fired? I'll try to get some pics posted. The stock is really dark. I figured it was just that dirty. It's not, just stained really dark. Anyway, just looking for thoughts and opinions. Thanks

[Greatguns]

Nice lookin' Yugo Thunder.

IIRC, some of the last years were like non-issued so it is possible, but others who are more up on those will have a better answer than I.

[Thundersnow70]

[Thundersnow70]

[Thundersnow70]

[Thundersnow70]

[Papahound]

I have several Yugo , all have nice grain in the stock .. looks like you got a nice keeper there ,  congratulations 

[Phosphorus32]

Refurbished Yugoslavians with sanded stocks always have the tell of the curled up edge on the rubber butt pad. Yours has the nice smooth seam of a non-refurbished example. Do all of the serial numbers and assembly numbers (different number) match?

The darkness of that stock is very unusual. Someone probably stained it.

[Thundersnow70]

Thanks for the replies. I should have mentioned it's a numbers matching. 661xxx iirc. That's why I figured 80/81 build from something I found on the web. I believe it was imported by Century Arms. I think I seen a CAI something on the barrel. I'm away from the gun now but I recall the Yugo numbers, a CAI serial number on the barrel and then.two other numbers that I believe the previous owner put on. Those 2 match as well but look like they were done with a hand engraver. I'll take pics of those when I get home.

I suspected it was stained from the look of the inside of the stock. Now the decision to leave it alone or strip it and try to make it look more correct. Either way I think I need to keep looking, this one appears to nice to run.a mountain of ammo through.

[running-man]

S661xxx would have a build date between 09/21/82 and 10/02/82 (I’d guess to 9/22 or 9/23 based on S/N proximity).

I agree with you and P32 on the stock. While maybe not sanded, likely it was stripped/refinished as later yugo stocks don’t look dark like that at all. Some of the early elm stocks certainly did though. I had an old mixmaster that had a stock darker than this one and it was uniformly dark throughout, not with light and dark areas. Rumor was that the Yugo irregulars used heavy motor oil to wipe down their stocks in the field during the war.  . Not sure I totally believe that but it’s the rumor…

Nice rifle though, I would not be afraid to shoot it. They all shoot quite well as long as the gas shutoff is in decent shape. You’ll be happy with this one I suspect! 

[Phosphorus32]

The “hand engraved” electopenciled numbers you observed are likely the Yugoslavian-applied assembly numbers found on just a few components that they needed to keep together prior to applying the serial numbers.

If the previous owner didn’t put a top coat of BLO over the stain you might be able to lighten it up a bit by rubbing down with mineral spirits. You aren’t going to get a lot out as wood stain tends to, well, stain the wood, it’s tightly bound. Finish up with a Ballistol rub down.

I wouldn’t worry about shooting it. I guess if the bolt face and gas piston are pristine, and you had other SKSs to shoot, it could be set aside.

[Thundersnow70]

Thanks for all the information. I'll break it down in the near future and see what's what. Maybe look into doing something with the stock. Interesting about the 2 odd ball hand engraved numbers. Makes sense. One is on the trigger guard and I forget where the other is. Good stuff, thanks again!

[Thundersnow70]

On a side note I'm pretty sure it's just stained. No BLO or topcoat. In the event I strip the stock what did an early 80's Yugo stock look like? Natural, oiled, stained etc?

[running-man]

Letter S guns in my files and nearby letter R and letter T from the same general period look like this:












Whereas many M59s and letter D early M59/66 were often *much* darker specimens that looked like this:










There is no right or wrong for certain.  Personal preference will definitely factor in here...

[Thundersnow70]

Interesting Running man. I literally just realized I have a S gun. Don't know what that means but it's got the S. Someday I might try to lighten it or strip it but honestly I have a million other things to do and it will probably get put off. First things first. Break it down and make sure it's clean. Or just take it out and shoot it. Thanks again for the wealth of knowledge guys.

[running-man]

Glad you enjoy the site and find it useful!

The S is just the prefix, these (mostly) changed each year with (mostly) sequential serial numbers throughout the entirety of production.  There are a few outliers with no prefix and of course the long barreled Yugos with the three digit S/N's.  B's and C's with 5 digit S/N's (XX,XXX) are all M59s (no grenade launcher, gas shutoff, or grenade sights), a portion of D's were the M59/66 variety (no night sights), then the remainder of D's through ~Z were the M59/66A1 variety (phosphor night sights).  They restarted the prefix with A's, B's and C's except these had 6 digit S/N's (XXX,XXX) and these were all the M59/66A2 variety (tritium night sights).  Many of the M59/66 and M59/66A1's were converted to M59/66A1 phosphor or M59/66A2 tritium variants during refurbishment as has been seen from rifle & logbook analysis.