non-factory /26\ "Egyptian Contract" possibility

[Loose}{Cannon]

Not a dent huh....   VERY interesting!!

[armedhippie]

Very interesting, I've seen this dent in my rummaging of shops before. Never thought much and must not have seen it very often. I was probably thinking just a dent as well.

Good stuff fellas  Another tidbit to look out for, I'll keep my eye's peeled for /\ and relation to "dent" now for sure.

[running-man]

Awesome observation guys.  No idea how I missed that...heck I even missed it in the OP's photos.  Just glossed right over it. 

It certainly continued into the year 17 and 18 series:

1716437:


18019770:


I wonder if other arsenals had these style magazines or if it was unique to the /906\? 

[gregsthe1]

1716437

18019770

Went from 7-digit to 8-digit in '73 I see. Also kinda interesting.

[running-man]

Yup, there are many arsenals that seem to have done that for whatever reason.  Usually the arsenal is fairly consistent year to year, but there are times that the S/N total length changes from one year to the next. 

This is one of the main reasons that the old dating system found throughout the net of counting the 'millions' is dead wrong.  14,xxx,xxx is a year 14 gun, 1,5xx,xxx is a year 15 gun.   Both have different numbers of digits but the prefix is the important part in measuring the year, not the millions place.

[Justin Hell]

Wouldn't it be funny if the dent was simply caused by a nut that fell off of something into the stamping machine and went unnoticed for years. 

I would be interested if more folks also noticed this at all, I am limited to three other matching guns to confirm the factory of origin...that are Chinese anyway...two of them are /26\s one a /206\ all of those are normal. Two other unknown Chinese mags are also normal. Three Yugo mags...normal.

Until another arises can we call it a /906\ism? Can we? Can we?

How difficult is it to insert a new data point in the survey? Also on another survey related note, if one were to notice something new and want to fill out the survey again, perhaps adding pictures...would that just fall into it's previous place or would that be another item of tedium in your life RM?

[Greasemonkey]

One other does share this, take it for what it's worth....but, Albanians share this 906-ism dent trait

Albanian on the left with Chinese 416 on the right

[Loose}{Cannon]

All great stuff fellas....   

[running-man]

Found another 16 prefix /906\ on gubroker Gunboards.  Very similar to the OPs minus the ST A VT stamp. Fiberglass stock likely indicates a bubba, but who knows. Magazine has the 906ism that Justin ID'd as well. 

http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?690369-gunshow-today-SKS-non-import-veitnam&p=6171905#post6171905

[Justin Hell]

Cool, glad to know the dent really isn't and there is more proof.

It repaints an image that was in my mind of them receiving some parts factory to factory that weren't made in house. I had thought that smaller less fit dependent parts like sight ladders, FSBs, trigger groups, sight blocks etc. were farmed out to specialist factories.  I am going to keep an eye out for more little things like this.

[rwhite135]

One thing is certain.  Between the /906\ dent and the weird 4 on the /0130\B stock serial #s, the Chinese don't seem to have believed in cosmetic uniformity on these rifles. 

[running-man]

Nope, some are quite unique!

Year 22, [0306], medium font, 4 digit:


Year 21, [0141], huge font, 4 digit:


Year 28, /0223b\, very small font, 5 digit:


Year 18, /106\ smallish font, 5 digit:


Year 16, /156\ism w/ star, medium font, 5 digit:


Year 18, /906\ medium font, 6 digit:


1973, [0141], medium font, 7 digit:


Year 22, [0141], medium font, 8 digit:


And that's just from 5 minutes of searching.  At some point, we will have the ARSENAL COMPONENT CONFIGURATIONS board fully populated.