1955 Letter Tula IC

[Stoned_Oli]

The lighting sucks on this planet, but I had time to grab a few poorly lit, out of focus shots of the Letter 55... What I thought was paint on the buttplate is just shellac over-brush...

[Loose}{Cannon]

What's the import stamp say again?   (A VT) or (ALB VT) ?

[Worm]

Most of the time the plo guns with the Ruby shellac will be messily applied. Over crossbolts, over edges of buttplate, etc.

That shellac job is right on par for one. Thats a used Russian, with correct sand down/ reshellac, and correct import mark.

Hard to pinpoint where Russians were sent to as aid. Could've been PLO, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, etc. Russia sent these everywhere in the Middle East.

This is really awesome.

What's the import stamp say again?   (A VT) or (ALB VT) ?

It's ALB, correct for plo/ic

Also, to note, if that's a replacement stock, that's mostly where ruby shellac is found on these guns. Replacements.

[Worm]

Look familiar?


Loose Cannon's 12 Mill Standard

[running-man]

That's a downright awesome pickup Oli!  The KP S/N, cyrillic D, and and the lack of Tula star on the receiver are icing on the cake!

[Stoned_Oli]

That's a downright awesome pickup Oli!  The KP S/N, cyrillic D, and and the lack of Tula star on the receiver are icing on the cake!

Thanks! What is weird though is the number under the shellac seems to start with G, followed by 5 digits.

[running-man]

Interesting, can you get a photo of it?  Cyrillic doesn't have a G, but that is surely a Russian hardwood stock.  Maybe a mismatch off some other Russian with a 'C?' prefix?  neat stuff nonetheless! 

[Dannyboy53]

Awesome carbine Oli, thnx for sharing it!

[Loose}{Cannon]

I def think this IS an IC....   fantastic buy Oli !!

[Stoned_Oli]

I def think this IS an IC....   fantastic buy Oli !!

Sweet! Thanks for pointing it out in the beginning... That $550 price tag was a blocker for sure, and without the IC part I wouldn't have tried for it being incomplete.

Interesting, can you get a photo of it?  Cyrillic doesn't have a G, but that is surely a Russian hardwood stock.  Maybe a mismatch off some other Russian with a 'C?' prefix?  neat stuff nonetheless! 

Here ya go!





As near as I can tell, the serial absolutely, positively, and without a doubt may have been similar to G14601.



As far as the wood goes, there are a couple of spots that look beech-like. Not a wood expert at all, but here are a couple pics...

[Stoned_Oli]

Look familiar?

Indeed it does! 

[bbush44]

Just throwing out a WAG , but could it be GH4601, GM4601, or GN4601, and the second letter is just lightly struck. I agree the grain looks beech like. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

I see GM4601 of the 1959 Romanian breed   

GM44 - 1959
GM411 - 1959
GM49x - 1959
GM789 - 1959
GM8xx - 1959
GM10xx - 1959
GM1289 - 1959
GM2040 - 1959
GM22xx - 1959
GM25xx - 1959
GM3214 - 1959
GM42xx - 1959
GM4656 - 1959

[Stoned_Oli]

I see GM4601 of the 1959 Romanian breed   

GM44 - 1959
GM411 - 1959
GM49x - 1959
GM789 - 1959
GM8xx - 1959
GM10xx - 1959
GM1289 - 1959
GM2040 - 1959
GM22xx - 1959
GM25xx - 1959
GM3214 - 1959
GM42xx - 1959
GM4656 - 1959

Dammit! Now it's not a true Russian! :D
I like Romeys, I am so proud to have this mixed baby...
So do you think the PLO wears rings and plays air guitar?

[Worm]

Holy ****, Romy beech stock. This is interesting.

Never seen this before.

[CARBINE]

This one is full of mystery.

[Worm]

I'm not surprised to see a replacement stock on an Israeli capture gun, but for it to be Romanian is a surprise to me.

Russian guns were sent to Egypt, Syria, and the PLO, so it would be difficult to narrow down where it came from exactly. This Romy stock could help narrow down the path it took, however.

How? Where this rifle traveled through in the Middle East may have had aid from Romania also, for them to use a Romanian stock to "haji-furb" it. But, for it to have the red shellac means it ended up in the same place as our Chinese Ic's; more than likely, the PLO in Lebanon where it was captured by Israel in 82', the end of it's "military service" in the Middle East.


So, looking into who had aid from Romania... I find this:

During that time (60's-70's) many Palestinian militants were trained in Romania and many of the weapons that the PLO used against Israel were made in the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries including Romania

Sure enough, the PLO seem to be the only ones who received any aid from Romania in the Middle East pre-82 that were involved in fighting Israel.

So, the Romanian stock + the red shellac point toward PLO refurb.

I could be wrong, but this is what would make sense to me. You'd think more Chinese Ic's would be found with Romanian stocks, but then again, I do recall seeing a Romanian leather sling on one some time back.

I just think you got really lucky finding this gun, a Russian with a Romy stock coming out of the middle east. Sort of a "Russian Sneak of the 80's" coming out of Israel, except importing Russian guns were legal back then and the few Russians that came in were actually import marked "Made In Russia".

I wouldn't be surprised if we find a Chinese some day rocking a Romy stock. We find them wearing Russia stocks, I own one.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Oli... what exactly doed your import stamp say in its entirety?

[Stoned_Oli]

Oli... what exactly doed your import stamp say in its entirety?

C A I ST ALB VT

SKS 7.62 X 39 RUSSIA

[Loose}{Cannon]

Thanks.... was just making sure the didn't pull an IO and mark it as Chinese.