The NVA SKS, Domestically produced rifle or just a property mark?

[Loose}{Cannon]

I am just trying to provide some additional weapons from same era with different markings and perhaps it'll hit something for us in our search -

Its interesting I guess, but out if all the dif nations of sks that was used by NV, none of them were marked with the country of origin like that SVD.

[Bunker]

Just a little more info to add to what Saigon1965 posted.  I also have several pics of this Russian SVD along with the paperwork that I saved some time ago.  Other than the fact that it’s a rare weapon and I wish it were mine, it was produced at the Izhevsk Plant in 1972 and the 603 is dated Dec 1974.  Here are three more relevant photos of that rifle.







Here is an Arsenal /26\ 3M series that also has some form of the Star 1 on the buttstock and what looks to be a faint star to the left of the serial number on the receiver.  This rifle has been discussed on a few different forums and maybe you guys have discussed it as well.  The markings are unusual and don’t fit the norm but nevertheless it contains some form of the marking being discussed here.  The experts here may have more insight into this particular rifle.









The /26\ may be a 1958 rifle but we have no idea when it arrived in Vietnam and the same story with the Chinese B40 Saigon65 posted, as China exported a lot of those to VN.  The Star two is a new twist though and what if anything does that tell us?  May not even relate to the SKS but interesting to me.  However, the B40 “Liberation” I posted was supposedly first manufactured (and I say the loosely) in North Vietnam in 1971.  I will verify that with a few books so don’t hold me to that yet.

So, all this tells us is the USSR, China and possibly North Vietnam (provided I can validate the B40 with a high degree of certainty) produced weapons that contained the Star 1 marking, and from 1962 (maybe earlier, we don’t know) until 1972-74 timeframe.  Possibly a break between 1965 and the SVD we see but not enough data to know one way or the other at this time.  I’ve read that some M21s also had the Star 1 marking but I don’t know if that is true and at this time I cannot validate that.  I'd be interested to know if anyone has seen an M21 with the Star 1 marking or other /26\ rifles for that matter.

[Saigon1965]

Very neat stuff Bunker - Thanks for posting these -

The star 1 appears on so few and various weapons but nevertheless - Quite interesting -

[Loose}{Cannon]

I don't see a star on the 3m receiver at all...     And the trouble with the stock stamp is that anyone could have done it.  Its a large stamp with a much smaller 1 in the middle which isn't consistent with anything I have seen.  Heck, I can go down to hobby lobby and duplicate that right now. 

[running-man]

Here is an Arsenal /26\ 3M series that also has some form of the Star 1 on the buttstock and what looks to be a faint star to the left of the serial number on the receiver.  This rifle has been discussed on a few different forums and maybe you guys have discussed it as well.  The markings are unusual and don’t fit the norm but nevertheless it contains some form of the marking being discussed here.  The experts here may have more insight into this particular rifle.

...

  I'd be interested to know if anyone has seen an M21 with the Star 1 marking or other /26\ rifles for that matter.

I know nothing about SVDs, and arguably not very much about Chinese Type 54 56 SKSs, but I'll toss out what I'm seeing here.  That stock has an original 1/4 tall x 1/10 wide lettering for the original 6 digit S/N stock stamp.  It is not a great resolution photo an I can't tell if it matches the receiver S/N or not.  It's possible that it does as I *think* I see a "31" as the last two numbers, but more interesting is the S/N restamp in the very tall but narrow lettering.  The Chinese did not begin to use font even remotely that large until much later in production.  You really start to notice the larger font in the 10 mil /26\ series when many other changes occurred. 
 



This factory stock has numerals are equally wide as they are tall (roughly 3/8" x 3/8" whereas the ones in your image are at least the same height if not taller, but a bit narrower) and they have a full 5 digits (0 to 99k ) to be able to track 100k guns at a time, unlike the 4 digits of the restamp S/N you show which would only have been able to track 10k guns at a time. 

Here's an interesting one I found in my records.  7 million /26\ (1962 manufacture) with a clearly replaced/refurbished stock (should have a side swivel on it).  Unfortunately no clear photos of the right side of the stock, but very similar (I'd say the 1's & 2's look identical) font to the star 1 example you show.



I've never seen an M21 No marked with anything remotely like a star 1, though with so few known examples out there, that's probably not surprising.