Handguard stamped serial

[Cz315]

A saw a Tula SKS with a serial number stamped on the hand guard wood. Is this a sign of refurb like in "Ex-DDR/Liski"s ? The rest of the stock has normal non-refurb Tula look and cartouches.

[Boris Badinov]

Yes, it's resarsenal stamping.

[running-man]

Handguard S/Ns are highly correlated to the 41st Central ABV facility at Irkutsk.  The refurb symbol is /1\ which was once proposed as a de-facto East German stamp and propagated across the internet as gospel.  Unfortunately for that hypothesis, we found that the /1\ stamp was indeed a German stamp, but it was a pre-Cold War stamp used on exported commercial firearms.  What it would be doing on a military firearm manufactured in Russia was never even asked and with the research Ruslan Chumak has been able to undertake using primary Russian sources it appears to be a Russian refurb facility stamp.  Interestingly enough, Ruslan incorrectly attributed the /1\ to "лиски" which points to the is Liski in his early analysis.  He corrected his mistake later on, but the "Ex-DDR / Liski" moniker remains showing how difficult it is to kill an establishe internet rumor... 

Horizontal handguard often pops up with horizontal stock S/N:

[Greasemonkey]

Oh... it's the DDR handguard.   

[Cz315]

Thanks guys!

I read some of the old discussions on the SKSboards, but I wasn't sure what the consensus was on the ones that have "normal" three row Tula marks with matching numbers. BTW there seems to be no ep'd serial on that gas tube. Is that also the case with the other Irkutsk refurbs?

[running-man]

Thanks guys!

I read some of the old discussions on the SKSboards, but I wasn't sure what the consensus was on the ones that have "normal" three row Tula marks with matching numbers. BTW there seems to be no ep'd serial on that gas tube. Is that also the case with the other Irkutsk refurbs?

I don't know of anyone who has looked at the Irkutsk examples in detail with respect to any EP'd numbers on the gas tubes.  Ask five collectors, and you'll get five different answers as to why the numbers on gas tubs were EP'd and who marked them there though.  Same with EP'd numbers on rear sight leaves, buttplates, etc.  It'll range the gamut from "put there originally during initial fab at Tula/Izhesvsk" to "only put on at select refurb shops, and even then inconsistently".