Not to get off subject here but I wonder if we should separate the different stamps of each year in the Russian serial number registry, could help us crack the Russian code on the serial numbers........1954's with closed 4 have these certain prefixes and 54's with open have these, might narrow it down possibly...whats your thoughts on this?
You know Tony, in all honesty, my Russian SKS knowledge is pretty limited. I've got lots of bits and pieces but haven't really put the effort in to putting them all together like I have with the Chinese type 56s. I had no idea that there were open vs closed 4's on the receiver covers. I've been meaning/planning/procrastinating on posting up various receiver cover tops that I've got from '49s all the way through the blanks (I've probably got 50 different receiver cover tops to compare and contrast). There are lots of variations that I've seen (but I haven't been able to document yet) in the Tula stars, arrows, and now it seems in the numbers/font too. If we can categorize them, maybe we can assign S/N blocks to certain changes in the receiver covers. It's a really good idea.