I have a Russian SKS letter gun: Has a Russian looking "N" after the serial number with the five pointed star on the side of receiver. I believe the "N" places the receiver manufacture date as 1957. It is a all stamped matching rework. The receiver cover has the Tula star and is dated 1955. Any ideas on this receiver cover/receiver date gap? Did they just have covers left over from 1955 that they were put on the "N" receivers??
You’re correct, the И suffix on a Tula means 1957. The receiver cover with a 1955 just means they grabbed a used cover during refurbishment, scrubbed the existing serial number and stamped on the number for your rifle.
To add to P32's excellent response here's an example of an obviously mismatched receiver cover. Look at the fonts and you can tell which parts are original and which are not:
(https://image.ibb.co/gk2sEK/AT1733_receiver.jpg)
(https://image.ibb.co/kpnsEK/AT1733_receiver_cover_top.jpg)
(https://image.ibb.co/efxETe/AT1733_receiver_cover.jpg)
(https://image.ibb.co/kzpiMz/AT1733_bolt_carrier.jpg)
(https://image.ibb.co/bZBxgz/AT1733_magazine.jpg)
(https://image.ibb.co/bOSQZK/AT1733_trigger_group.jpg)
Question: Does having a letter gun receiver(1957) make this SKS more valuable. As stated above it picked up a 1955 receiver cover during rework.
Quote from: sagesbrush on October 08, 2018, 05:57:15 PM
Question: Does having a letter gun receiver(1957) make this SKS more valuable. As stated above it picked up a 1955 receiver cover during rework.
A matching letter gun, all other things being equal, is a bit more valuable than the more common Russians like 1951-54 Tulas. But this one is not all original so it is in the refurbished shooter grade category where I don't think the letter gun aspect adds much value, especially because of the clearly non-original receiver cover.
The serif 3's on the serial number look like the early Chinese serial fonts. I don't recall ever having seen that font on a soviet gun (though it is entirely possible).
Is this one of the Sino-Albanian sneaks? Possibly an I.O. import?
It's a TGI import from the early batch of Sino-Banians. Could very easily have been scrubbed and forced matched in China Boris. Seems plausible with the serif on the 3's as I can't recall seeing that font on any other Russian guns either. It's pretty distinctive, good eye. thumb1
(https://preview.ibb.co/jX2sB9/AT1733_import_stamp2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/c4V14U)
Quote from: running-man on October 09, 2018, 10:48:30 AM
It's a TGI import from the early batch of Sino-Banians. Could very easily have been scrubbed and forced matched in China Boris. Seems plausible with the serif on the 3's as I can't recall seeing that font on any other Russian guns either. It's pretty distinctive, good eye. thumb1
(https://preview.ibb.co/jX2sB9/AT1733_import_stamp2.jpg) (https://ibb.co/c4V14U)
Only the 3's are similar to the Chinese stamps. The other numbers and the Cyrillic letters bear strong resemblances to known soviet fonts.
I heavily suspect that this one ended up in Tirana via Moscow, not China. And the serif 3 stamps probably came from China along with Type 56's, or crafted in Albania. (I'd even go so far to posit that, with the exception of the Soviet-Sino guns [0001 to ~2000], no other "Soviet" guns ended up in the Chinese small arms arsenal).
I think the 7's are very reminiscent of early Chinese stamps too. The 1's are totally different.
(https://image.ibb.co/dexR4U/18376_receiver.jpg) (https://ibb.co/gsrVW9)
The A's are also totally different from the letter A Chinese guns.
(https://image.ibb.co/mvYoJp/A5726_bolt_carrier.jpg) (https://imgbb.com/)
And of course, all numerals are wildly different from the assumed native stamps used on Alby 561s:
(https://image.ibb.co/nMXXdp/09473_receiver.jpg) (https://ibb.co/d6zCdp)