What information should we keep track of in the Russian Registry?

[Loose}{Cannon]

You guys have wondered off into rarely charted territories and I commend your bravery!

[running-man]

Laugh I don't know that it's bravery.  Foolhardiness on my part for certain.

Bunker has a *very* good handle on it though.  Very nice to see a collector who has obviously done the legwork to research what they have and not just take the word of an expert on the net.


We have gotten lost amongst the weeds a bit though, but I'll never turn down some nice AK pics!! 

So the beginning of our tangential discussion was this mark:

which appears to correspond to 75th ABC ABV Leningrad (I wish I knew what the ABC stood for and whether it's the same as the ABV's on the list above).  (Duh, "B" translates into a "V" in english, but Mr. Google tries to be smart and when you go AБB automatically thinks "ABC", as those are the first three letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Other marks I've seen on SKSs are:

Our favorite /1\ "Ex-Ex-DDR", 1871 ABV, Liski


The [/], 1st GRAU, Balakleya


The <|>, 5th GRAU Alatyr


The Hexagon with cross 1827th ABV Nizyn


The octagon (could be a hexagon, I think there is discussion of hexagon vs octagon on guns.ru but didn't see that there was and agreement of one over the other) with center radius from ABV Прн Serbdosk


The empty <>, which I don't have an attribution to yet


The <- >, which I don't have an attribution to yet (and this one could be a poor stamp off another refurb shop.) Nope, I have a crisp stamp of this one.


Those are the ones I can remember from memory, I'll have to go through my files and see what else might pop up.  Anyone seen any others?

[running-man]

I found a neat one just a bit ago:




There is also a hex with maybe a single line from an vertex to the center.  Kind of resembles:

but it's clearly not an octagon...

I've seen lots of hexagons in this area of the receiver, it's clearly a std. location for certain refurb shop stamps that didn't mark the receiver covers.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Ooo....   Nice example of a dual stamp, and great find on the /5\! 

[running-man]

We might not ever see this one on an SKS (I've never seen it, but I guess never say never) but here an example of one of the ways the Russian team is actually validating certain stamps:

The stamp looks like (sorry I don't have a photo of it on a piece of equipment):


and associated paperwork has this seal on it:


The literal translation according to Mr. Google is:
OPEN JOINT STOCK COMPANY
55 arsenal
Tver oblast city of Rzhev

I'm not sure how 'arsenal' necessarily compares to a GRAU (Главное ракетно-артиллерийское управление МО РФ, "The main rocket and artillery Directorate of the RF MINISTRY of DEFENSE" per Mr. Google)) or ABV (which I've read appears to stand for Aртиллерийская База Вооружения, "artillery base armaments"), but it according to this Wiki page, there is a 55th arsenal associated with the GRAU located in Rzhev.  Interesting to note that there is also a 60th arsenal in Kaluga and a 75th arsenal in Serpukhov (southern suburb of Moscow).

Anyhow, this gives me pretty good confidence that these refurb facility assignments aren't a big "duh, everyone knows it's 1956 + year" guess with zero proof behind them. 

[Bunker]

I have some good data points on a few on these but have to sort through what I have first.  I know I've been digging into the /25\  and <> for sometime and may have some useful info that may potentially aid in this research. 

Here is a 1956 U.S. TM, entitled "Glossary of Soviet Military and Related Abbreviations" that may be of some use.  It goes into the Soviet letters and abbreviations that may be helpful to some.  I know I am constantly learning when it comes to Russian.

http://fas.org/irp/world/russia/sovmil-glossary.pdf

[Bunker]

Already discussed but here is the PM progression for additional reference of the letter codes, which supports the AK progression I posted as well as the SKS. I stopped at 1969 but of course it continues.





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[running-man]

Nice set of photos Bunker! 

This thread certainly took a turn from what I expected, but I like how it has progressed. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

Oh wow..  Great examples bunker!