Recently acquired 50 Tula refurb

[DazedandConfuzed]

Found this locally and couldn't resist. I have a couple of Yugo's, but this one kind of spoke to me. Here's what I can tell (I'm new to SKS so bare with me) about this particular one.

The receiver cover is marked 1950 with the Tula stamp. Much smaller is the refurb mark from Izhevsk. All numbers match except the stock...it is XXXX'd with 1958 date and Tula stamp. CAI import stamp on the barrel.

     has the eye hole receiver cover latch.
     early firing pin spring.
     90 degree gas block.

Here's the pics, sorry for the poor quality! It's a fun shooter!

[carls sks]

nice, looks like a great find. congrats! 

[Justin Hell]

Very cool...and of particular interest to me due to the serial. 

I am still trying to determine if my 49/50 project is a 49 or 50....yours shares all the most of the same features, and Ю is the second to last letter in the cyrrilic alphabet.  Mine is an EO...if the natural progression follows the order EO should come before EЮ....all those early features (might) punt me closer to 49 again.   The crossover from late 49 to late 50 is the most fascinating section of Russian SKS collecting IMO.

I didn't get a great look at your receiver cover, but it appears to have the hand struck Tula star and date rather than the machine stamping they got later on in 50...those are more associated with the later 50s with the 45 degree gas block. I believe that is the second version of the looped takedown lever too...which is a little less robust than the first, and didn't last long before being replaced with a couple different versions of the levers we are all used to in later SKSs. That is a pretty cool takedown lever, they are pretty uncommon due to the short lived nature of that version.  I have only known of the difference for a couple months...this is the first I have seen outside of the first example seen in a post here.   Doh! redacted.

Does anyone have any idea what YEYOO means?  I searched and got zilch.

Nice score!!   

[jstin2]

It looks more like the early version latch pin. The solid latch pin was associated with 49 and early 50. The stamped latch pin is different than early models. Early pins are shown in album.

https://ibb.co/album/imDMiv

[Justin Hell]

It looks more like the early version latch pin. The solid latch pin was associated with 49 and early 50. The stamped latch pin is different than early models. Early pins are shown in album.

https://ibb.co/album/imDMiv

You are totally correct....for some reason I had the two reversed in my mind.  I was too lazy to go check mine....apologies for my blonde moment.

[DazedandConfuzed]

Does anyone have any idea what YEYOO means?

I read somewhere (drawn a blank) that some of the importers tried to "interpret" the cyriliic alpha. May not be the case, due to the fact I haven't seen it anywhere else.

[Justin Hell]

Does anyone have any idea what YEYOO means?

I read somewhere (drawn a blank) that some of the importers tried to "interpret" the cyriliic alpha. May not be the case, due to the fact I haven't seen it anywhere else.

I bet that is it...E Ю  translates to YeYu....close but no borscht.

[running-man]

I bet that is it...E Ю  translates to YeYu....close but no borscht.

Yes, the YEYOO is the CAI translation of the S/N Prefix.  This gun's S/N recorded on the ATF form 6 license is YEYOO1708. 

[Justin Hell]

I bet that is it...E Ю  translates to YeYu....close but no borscht.

Yes, the YEYOO is the CAI translation of the S/N Prefix.  This gun's S/N recorded on the ATF form 6 license is YEYOO1708. 

I sure am glad they only used two Cyrrilic characters. 
That is such a moronic practice...I hope it didn't last long. A thread documenting the nonsense brutally pounded into these guns might be a hoot though...

YEYOO is pretty funny just saying it. Others might be hilarious or just downright sad.  Heck, it might create a new collector's niche.
Twenty years from now YEYOO numbers matching Tula's might be sought after once all imports have finally been depleted and we just need that 50th SKS to complete the Russian collection. 

[DazedandConfuzed]

I bet that is it...E Ю  translates to YeYu....close but no borscht.

Yes, the YEYOO is the CAI translation of the S/N Prefix.  This gun's S/N recorded on the ATF form 6 license is YEYOO1708. 

I sure am glad they only used two Cyrrilic characters. 
That is such a moronic practice...I hope it didn't last long. A thread documenting the nonsense brutally pounded into these guns might be a hoot though...

YEYOO is pretty funny just saying it. Others might be hilarious or just downright sad.  Heck, it might create a new collector's niche.
Twenty years from now YEYOO numbers matching Tula's might be sought after once all imports have finally been depleted and we just need that 50th SKS to complete the Russian collection. 

HA! YEYOO...the value doubles! I wish!