Interesting '51 receiver cover stamp

[running-man]

Anyone ever seen one of these?


I ran across it on a Canadian board.  I'm assuming that the Tula arrow was supposed to be hand stamped within the star in a separate process, but was forgotten. 

I have the following '51 examples, but oddly enough no hand stamped arrows (I lie, #3 looks pretty hand stamped to me!) 

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I know they used hand stamped arrows as late as '52 though, so it may be I just haven't run across one yet:


It's interesting, you can see the star outline on the first photo matches with #2, 3, and the last photo with that cutoff lower left corner of the star.  I hadn't expected to be able to see patterns like that.  I'm encouraged! 

[martin08]

Now I'm going to have to dig out my '51 to look at it. 

[running-man]

Sorry man.  I'm constantly finding new info here and there.  Drives me crazy sometimes as every time I think I *know* something, some new data point comes along to make me question it + something else!

It will be interesting to see if the particular arsenal stamp on the covers is something that might help us narrow down the dates on some of the pristine as-issued examples out there.  I knew we could narrow down certain guns (such as say the transitional '50s or the 1956 letter Д KP prefixed guns) through the use of the receiver cover progression, but I wonder if this also holds for all the other years as well? It'll be interesting to see if we can say an "AB" and a "YZ" prefix from 19XX are 'related' (built close together in time) by correlating the arsenal stamp on the receiver covers.  I guess it would depend on how the receiver covers were actually fabricated and used...I wonder if they ran a batch, used them, and then ran another batch when supplies dwindled (like a modern JIT supplier) or if they were constantly fabricating them, chucking them into a massive bin, and pulling them out on a continual basis (more like an assembly line).  I think we have a good chance of figuring that out one way or another if we look close enough at the evidence. 

I'm very close to getting a Russian SKS survey up and with that I'll also get stuff like all these receiver cover variations up on the forthcoming Russian SKS Guide.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Some very good observations RM...  Its interesting to see these side/side noting the differences. 

[Phosphorus32]

I would say mine is closest to pic 2

[jjjxlr8]

My '51 Tula is different than all of the above!  Crazy how many different arrows on these!

[running-man]

I've got 48 different examples among all the years on Russians, and as jjjx shows, I most certainly don't have them all!!

That's a pretty '51 Jon, you holding out on us!? 

[Phosphorus32]

  no, it was my first Russian. I haven't posted it here before.

[Worm]

I think there's an unlimited amount of varieties of oddities when it comes to sks's.

Nothing surprises me. lol

[martin08]

Mine looks like the nuclear nightmare - broken arrow.

[CARBINE]

Mine looks like the nuclear nightmare - broken arrow.

Weird!

[CARBINE]

Would be cool to start to notice patterns in these russians, RM your on the right track!!

[running-man]

Pretty neat one Matt! 

[Phosphorus32]

jjjxlr8's '51 has the most professional looking (freshest?) stamping with nice pointed star tips.

Surprising level of variability that can't be attributed solely to stamp wear. Definitely different patterns.

[Justin Hell]

Wouldn't a rounded stamp be more likely to fail over shorter periods of time? Seems to me as if they would go through tons of stamps.

Ivan machines one in the middle of the night to replace the one Serge made without his glasses, to replace the one Ivan made on a sober day the first time. 

I would speculate that maybe the Russians may have passed on intel to the Chinese that the stamping of the top of the RC was a major PITA and that is why you don't see it on anybody elses....oh, wait except North Korea....did I just open a can of worms? 

[Dannyboy53]

no, it was my first Russian. I haven't posted it here before.

You go sit in the truck with the windows rolled up 

[Direct Connection]

Wouldn't a rounded stamp be more likely to fail over shorter periods of time? Seems to me as if they would go through tons of stamps.

Ivan machines one in the middle of the night to replace the one Serge made without his glasses, to replace the one Ivan made on a sober day the first time. 

I would speculate that maybe the Russians may have passed on intel to the Chinese that the stamping of the top of the RC was a major PITA and that is why you don't see it on anybody elses....oh, wait except North Korea....did I just open a can of worms? 

Ivan must have worked many factories through out his career. See what you started 

[Loose}{Cannon]

It was Igor Dyatlov....   Word famous ski hiking guide/leader. 

[Dannyboy53]

    

[pcke2000]

something interesting found on a russian language forum

http://forum.guns.ru/forummessage/85/631165.html