Russian Letter Series

[CARBINE]

Russian Letter Series
The Russian letter series are a very unique and collectable example of the Russian Sks 45. The reason they are called letter series is because the serial number is followed by one of three Russian letters. As of right now the current research suggests that the letters correspond with years, before the letter series there are 7 other dated years, 1949-1955 and two years of rifles produced in a factory called Izhevsk in 1953-54. After 1955 the Russians went to a different method of dating the carbines the first year was
1956, Д =D in English
1957, И= I in English
1958, K= K in English

Letter D Non-Refurb



Letter I Non-Refurb



Letter K Non-Refurb



Currently the letter K or 1958 is the last year of the Russian Sks 45 that we know about, the letter series have some unique features that other years do not have.
First off is that the top receiver cover is blank, no date or star on the receiver cover just the serial number on the back side.




Another unique feature is that there is a small star on the left side of the receiver.



All Original non-refurb Russian sks years have a date and star on the left side of the stock, except for some late 1955 and all the letter series, they show just a serial number.

1949-early 1955 Non-Refurbished



Late 1955-letter guns Non-Refurbished




Another unique feature is all letter series have been seen with original laminate stocks or original Arctic Birch stocks, the original laminate stocks are easy to distinguish from a refurbished laminate replacement stock simply because they will be the same ruby red shellac as the Arctic Birch.

Replacement stock



Original non-Refurbished Laminate

[running-man]

Very nice Tony! 

I'm going to link this post with an entry in the Russian FAQ. 

Have you noticed a common bayonet coloration on your guns (all yellow dipped, all chromed, all matte, etc.)?

What about crossbolt acceptance stamps, are they pretty similar across all your examples or are they totally different year to year?

[Loose}{Cannon]

Very Nice Carbine, I just made it a sticky.   Dont we have 1955 Ds?

[running-man]

The odd Д's have star/no-date covers.  The Tula stars on the receiver seem to be missing on any gun that has a star/no-date cover and a cartouched stock.  It's clearly a transitional period, I think we need more data to make a definitive determination as to exactly what they did and when they did it.

[CARBINE]

The odd Д's have star/no-date covers.  The Tula stars on the receiver seem to be missing on any gun that has a star/no-date cover and a cartouched stock.  It's clearly a transitional period, I think we need more data to make a definitive determination as to exactly what they did and when they did it.

Thats why I left them out, to many unknowns yet.

[Loose}{Cannon]

interesting...  I thought it was fairly well defined that we have 55 star stamped letter D guns with no receiver star.

[Blicero]

Fantastic writeup. A Legend is born!

[carls sks]

thanks for pics and info. 

[Dannyboy53]

   Awesome!

[Loose}{Cannon]

Think you can add the transitional 1955 D please?

[Boris Badinov]

Above there is a 1957 И in a hardwood stock identified as non-refurb.

How common is a 1957 in an issued hardwood stock?
I've been under  the impression that laminate was standard on all 1957 and 1958 carbines.

[Adler1945]

This is my first time on this site and my first discussion of my SKS.  I am beginning to read up here about the SKS and finding there is plenty I don't know about it.  The SKS I have (I guess) appears to be a refurbished, sort-of mix master. The rifle is a K letter, serial T Yu 1474 K, marked on the left of the frame and on the bolt carrier (I guess it is the bolt carrier).  The dust cover has the date 1951 and a 5-point star with an arrow inside, and the rear of that dust cover has the number 1474 T Yu showing, and a former serial number (I P 1141) defaced.. On the right side of the butt stock the number 1474 is stamped but some other serial number was X-ed out.  The bottom of the magazine is marked T Yu 1474 as is the outside bottom of the trigger guard. The importer stamped the barrel SKS 7.62 X 39 Russia C.A.I. St. Alb VT.  The folding blade bayonet has a shiny blade and at the base it electro-penciled 474.

It appears that the 1951 dust cover is incorrect to this letter K (1958) rifle. This rifle bears its action serial number, as well as two additional X-ed out numbers from other rifles.

[running-man]

Welcome to the SKS-Files Adler! 

At first blush, your carbine certainly appears to be a letter K gun based on just the S/N, but to verify 100% we would need to see the other feature sets (star stamp on the receiver behind the S/N, receiver round near the barrel lug, bayo mount style, gas tube takedown lever, receiver cover takedown lever, bolt & carrier configuration, trigger group config, etc.)  One thing I noticed is that the photo of the rear sight ladder has a 'tula star' on it which is indicative a pre '53/'54 component as the later year gun did not have that feature on it.

The receiver cover being XX'd and restamped is actually quite an uncommon thing to see.  You see XX'd stocks and XX'd magazines (I assume due to their thin walled construction) quite often, but not so often on heavier walled components.   Typically, those heavy walled components were fully scrubbed and then restamped with a new number, so you having the XX'd version is a nice clear indication that receiver cover was not born on this carbine. 

One final note is that the CAI St. Albans VT import stamp on guns imported during the '92-'94 timeframe was typically accompanied with a transliteration of the two letter prefix of the S/N on the receiver as the Cyrillic letters are incompatible with out Roman alphabet BATF recordkeeping requirements.  The fact that this carbine did not have them transliterated (yet does have an import mark from CAI meaning it's not a new import a-la a Russian 'sneak' or a Canadian border hopper) kind of piques my interest a bit.  This carbine *may* be an Israeli capture imported in the mid to late 80's.  Would need quite a bit more information to make more than that WAG however. 

[Papahound]

Very nice - thanks for sharing 

[Adler1945]

OK, I made notes of other photo views you are looking for. Thank you for expressing interest. As you may have guessed, I know nothing about an SKS. I got it something over 20 years ago, shot one Arizona jackrabbit with it and it hasn't be fired since. I guess that it will have to go on my workbench and have the wood removed to get at some of the features spoken of. I shall get back to this, hopefully with photos.  I thought I had a pretty decent (looking anyway) SKS but now I realize that I have a Russian parts bin special. Kind of bums me out a little.

[Rozzy]

First time on this site, and this thread provided a lot of useful info identifying this Russian sks I picked up at auction recently. Turns out it's an unfired letter "I" letter series rifle. Still has the preservative on the bayonet. Figured I'd share a few pictures all the markings are present as far as I can tell. It went for relatively cheap so I guess I got lucky that super old and dried cosmoline looks like rust to some. Spoke to the auctioneer and they found it buried in a barn.

[Boris Badinov]

Nice!

Might I recommend starting a separate thread for this rifle?

From what I can see-- this rifle checks all my boxes for a straight-to-long-term-storage carbine. Crisp edges on the crossbolt pilot holes, and inspection (maintenance) crossbolt stamps on both sides of the stock which is not very common.

I also like that there are some uncommon shapes to the crossbolt stamps-- I don't recall ever seeing an oval crossbolt stamp.

The US imports didn't have the heavy cosmoline that combloc imports are notorious for. Possibly a light coat of grease on metal parts, but not the cosmoline bath.

A very nice catch. Congratulations!