/416\ M?

[Stoned_Oli]

Hi guys! Long time no see...

I just saw an odd duck that made me curious... a fella over at the AK Files has an M for sale that has both the SKS-M marking and a /416\ arsenal mark.
I know I've never seen that before, how rare is it?

[Boris Badinov]

Some SKS M from Birklee imports had the /416\ stamp still intact.
See here: http://chinesesks.weebly.com/m.html

I wonder if the arsenal stamp was left intact when it was so far to the forward end of the receiver.

[running-man]

They are odd ducks for certain.  You typically hardly ever see Chinese type 56s with dual markings like that. 

Seems like from Hi/Low S/N's I have in my files, there was a fair run of at least 14000 (that is assuming that rifles in the middle of these two below were also all /416\ marked)

9428959:


9442663:


By 9454474 this arsenal stamp was gone:

[firstchoice]

I'm way late to this thread but thought I'd mention that all the /416\-marked, BTC-imported "M"s that I've seen, including mine, have the /416\ arsenal marking etched onto the receiver rather than "stamped" like the rest of the receiver markings and serial number. I don't know when the /416\ was applied but I doubt it was at the same time as the rest of the stamped markings.

firstchoice