My first Russian!

[Phosphorus32]

Congrats to you !! Russians are nice to handle and play with. My latest acquisition in the Russian department is warm and fuzzy, she was so nice to play with I proposed to her. Now for the import part.................................

 

[running-man]

Thank you running-man, and I see what you are talking about. Since my serial number is so close to your BO number gun then mine is a '53 Izzy also?

If I had to guess, that's what it would be.  Impossible to say 100% though.  Maybe one day we'll discover some specific Izhevsk-olny metal proof stamp and that'll be your smoking gun.

I've been looking this one over a bit more and now that more data has come in, I'm reversing course and saying this is definitely *not* an Izhevsk. (click photos to enlarge)

'53 Izhevsk:


'54 Izhevsk:


and different '54 Izhevsk:

Note the very distinctive "O" in the BO/HO prefix and how wide the aspect ratio is.  Danny's S/N has the tall skinny O/0 that is indicative of a Tula.

Additionally, take a look at the distinctive numeral "1" and "3" found in '53 and '54 Izhevsks.  Very distinctive and noticeably different from Danny's gun here I think:

[Loose}{Cannon]

Interesting

[running-man]

I suspected *all* the Izhevsks generally had different font width ratios, but I never really was sure enough to really make that call.  The receiver cover S/N thread made me look into them more and now that I've got the Russians all catalogued nicely in the current S/N spreadsheet, it's a breeze to look at every single Izhevsk and then break them down further into as-issued and light furbs to see what the markings truly say.   The 4's are extremely different too. 

I should make a thread showing examples of the digits from various years, would help in identifying orphans w/o matching receiver covers and stocks.

[Dannyboy53]

Yep, the serif on my "1" is much shorter than the Izhevsk numbers. Also, my zeros seem to be not as wide, the Izhevsk zeros are wider across the middle...like me.

[Direct Connection]

Beautiful Gun Danny !  Great story on the find too  .  Funny how your serial numbers are fairly close to my BO 465 Izzy. which also just reminded me of your Winchester 1200 your Dad passed down to you that you posted up a while back that is identical to my very first shotgun I bought brand new in high school. Yep Winchester 1200. Twins. When I get a little time ill reply with pics to your W1200 post.

And how lucky can we be to have Barock Obama's innitials on our SkS's ? Thats Just Great !!!! 

[Phosphorus32]

Since the B is a V in Cyrillic I guess that would be Vladimir Obama   

[Dannyboy53]

Beautiful Gun Danny !  Great story on the find too  .  Funny how your serial numbers are fairly close to my BO 465 Izzy. which also just reminded me of your Winchester 1200 your Dad passed down to you that you posted up a while back that is identical to my very first shotgun I bought brand new in high school. Yep Winchester 1200. Twins. When I get a little time ill reply with pics to your W1200 post.

And how lucky can we be to have Barock Obama's innitials on our SkS's ? Thats Just Great !!!! 

Thanks DC! It's funny how some s/n's  from the Tula & Izhevsk are similar, the Russians weren't very original...at least in this instance. Yours is a fine looking carbine! I look forward to seeing your shotgun here DC.

Since the B is a V in Cyrillic I guess that would be Vladimir Obama   

LOL...that's fitting Phosphorus!

[Direct Connection]

I really don't know enough about the SkS and especially its stamping identities. Our numbers are very closee and ive never seen another BO stamp on any other sks besides our two now. IDK... RM does have a valid point on the different types of stamping on the two sn's. Regardless, Tula or Izzy its a fine Russian and will always increase in value 

[Dannyboy53]

Before RM brought it up DC I had not noticed the difference in numbers that he wrote about but I also believe there definitely is something to it. I'm really not concerned about any value of my Russian, it certainly has zero value to a collector. But that isn't why I bought this carbine, I don't know diddly s**t about collecting firearms. I simply wanted a Russian made SKS and I do not intend to ever get rid of it. It's got nice looking wood (Izhevsk stock!) and is a great shooter.

 It seems like the more someone digs and finds answers, the more questions are uncovered! But if we had all the answers where would we be then?! 

[running-man]

I finally found an as-issued '53 with the BO prefix Danny:




I'm firmly in the camp that your gun is a '53 Tula now.

Here are all the BO prefixes I have in the spreadsheet.  The '49 & '57 Tulas and '53 Izhevsk are all legit.  I believe the '52 and '54 Tulas are likely mismatched receiver covers, though it's possible that I simply don't have enough data points to flesh out those years with this prefix.  From what I've seen, generally the Russians did not reuse prefixes in two consecutive years, though I do have examples of exceptions to this 'rule', so who knows?  More data is key to unlocking things.  The spreadsheet now has 850+ guns in it with another several hundred left to catalogue. 
   

[Dannyboy53]

Running-man you have worked for a long time on these Russian carbines and made a lot of headway!  I thank you  for this revelation, it's nomenclature has finally been put to rest!