question , about a 4 digit 26

[hoopharted]

seen a 4 digit factory 26 in a pawn shop , but no letter prefix , resides in a black and nasty but still has the mag ,my understanding is 4 digits had a letter prefix

[Phosphorus32]

Did it have the /26\ marking?
If not, what was the thousands place, 1 or 2, or higher?
Did it have a small star on the receiver, to the right of the serial number?

[Greasemonkey]

Not all, the earliest 26's had 4 digits.. w/no prefix.. the very first didn't even have a 26, just the Tula star, est. the first 2000 rifles.. there are a few known with 26 and 4 digits, your thinking of the Letter Guns..

[Justin Hell]

What they neglected to say was BUY IT!

[hoopharted]

no star ,standard factory 26 triangle , no three characters ,maybe 3 inches separated the serial and triangle

i really didnt scour it at the time because of the black stock and the $625 tag on it ,it was more of ok move onto the next let me see that one , it didnt soak in until after i got home later what i had in my hands at the store

i am 100% certain about the 4 digit , no prefix , and factory 26 , i didnt scrutinize barrel ring or matching parts , im pretty sure i can get him down in price without making him privy to the early rifle

but from my reading it should have a letter prefix , if it had the tula star instead of the 26 one could chalk it up to a it was early on and they hadnt nailed down consistency yet scenario

[hoopharted]

Not all, the earliest 26's had 4 digits.. w/no prefix.. the very first didn't even have a 26, just the Tula star, est. the first 2000 rifles.. there are a few known with 26 and 4 digits, your thinking of the Letter Guns..

so are you saying it may be a early 57?

[Justin Hell]

no star ,standard factory 26 triangle , no three characters ,maybe 3 inches separated the serial and triangle

i really didnt scour it at the time because of the black stock and the $625 tag on it ,it was more of ok move onto the next let me see that one , it didnt soak in until after i got home later what i had in my hands at the store

i am 100% certain about the 4 digit , no prefix , and factory 26 , i didnt scrutinize barrel ring or matching parts , im pretty sure i can get him down in price without making him privy to the early rifle

but from my reading it should have a letter prefix , if it had the tula star instead of the 26 one could chalk it up to a it was early on and they hadnt nailed down consistency yet scenario

Well, that is strange.  It shouldn't have the /26\ and only be four digits....

[hoopharted]

well , i have a install tomorrow thats too big for one day and not big enough for two days so i will get off at a reasonable hour , im going to head back and mull it over , if the parts match i will make him a offer using the the black turd of a stock as a haggling point , if its matching i'll offer him $400 and he can keep the stock,lol

[hoopharted]

no star ,standard factory 26 triangle , no three characters ,maybe 3 inches separated the serial and triangle

i really didnt scour it at the time because of the black stock and the $625 tag on it ,it was more of ok move onto the next let me see that one , it didnt soak in until after i got home later what i had in my hands at the store

i am 100% certain about the 4 digit , no prefix , and factory 26 , i didnt scrutinize barrel ring or matching parts , im pretty sure i can get him down in price without making him privy to the early rifle

but from my reading it should have a letter prefix , if it had the tula star instead of the 26 one could chalk it up to a it was early on and they hadnt nailed down consistency yet scenario

Well, that is strange.  It shouldn't have the /26\ and only be four digits....

thats what i cant get past , im in no way a expert , but i have read the articles here a couple times so not 100% ignorant ither , no signs of trickery , metal looked good , billboard import on the receiver

[Phosphorus32]

Not all, the earliest 26's had 4 digits.. w/no prefix.. the very first didn't even have a 26, just the Tula star, est. the first 2000 rifles.. there are a few known with 26 and 4 digits, your thinking of the Letter Guns..

so are you saying it may be a early 57?

No, we were trying to figure out if it was a 1956 Soviet-Sino (first 2000 that had a Tula star on the receiver) or 4 digit ghost (~2001-9999) but since it has a /26\ marking, then it is most likely either missing the letter prefix marking, or it was scrubbed and restamped.

[hoopharted]

i will go back tomorrow and look closer at it and if i can get a more amical deal out of him i might just take a chance on it

[running-man]

Sometimes, they scrub, renumber, and leave the arsenal stamp intact:




If the other parts 'match', best to go by the feature set on the carbine:

• Short vs long threaded barrel lug
• Lightened vs solid bayo lug
• Lightened vs solid bolt carrier
• Stamped vs milled trigger group
• Cast vs machined gas block
• /26\ with 五六式 characters vs. /26\ without them.
• S/N to the right or to the left of the /26\

These will help to at least narrow the range down a little bit. 

I don't put too much stock in the oddball guns like these to derive anything earth-shattering from.  They are anomalies that don't follow the pattern. Now if we find 3 or 4 of them, my interest is definitely piqued, but subsets of one are lonely hills to die on. 

[Greatguns]

At $400 who cares what it is as long as it shoots well. You can worry about the details after you buy it. And as far as the stock, you can always resell it so if he says $450 w/the stock take it and run.

[hoopharted]

At $400 who cares what it is as long as it shoots well. You can worry about the details after you buy it. And as far as the stock, you can always resell it so if he says $450 w/the stock take it and run.

no it was $675 on the tag , i said i was goung to offer $400 , and i did , he balked and asked if i could come up i said $450 was my best offer and went into my song and dance about how if it had the original lumber we would have already filled out the paperwork , he called his boss and came back at $500 , i wasnt going to let it go over $50 bucks so i snagged it

metal is in great shape , and is all there and matched numbers (excluding stock), it DOES in fact have a prefix , it was lightly struck on the receiver and is on all the parts , want to say it was a M or B  , it was at that point we started dickering

unfortunately the dreaded duel citizenship got me delayed again so it didnt come home with me tonight ,but its mine

i even said i will give you $400 and you can keep that POS stock and bi pod , he said he cant sell it , i laughed and said but you want to charge me $275 for it , BOL !!! he even got a laugh and thats when he called his boss and went to bat for me

they were clueless as to what it was , actuall so am i ,lol , but then again clueless is my middle name , along with a few others i will not mention

[Greatguns]

Hey $500 for a letter gun is an decent price these days even if you do end up with a scrubbed stock for it.

[hoopharted]

Hey $500 for a letter gun is an decent price these days even if you do end up with a scrubbed stock for it.

yea , i couldnt live with myself if i let it go over $50 , and like you said with all metal matching i didnt feel i got hurt

[hoopharted]

hopefully it can come home tomorrow

[Justin Hell]

Great, one more person looking for a letter gun stock!
I have one, but its been sanded beyond belief...had my eye out for awhile.  At least its pretty.
Congrats that's a pretty decent deal considering the market.

It's not too surprising the letter was poorly struck, you can barely see the /26\ a lot of the time on letter guns.

[hoopharted]

i will post some pics when i get it home , will have to grab a normal stock i suppose , too bad russian stocks are not correct

[Justin Hell]

i will post some pics when i get it home , will have to grab a normal stock i suppose , too bad russian stocks are not correct

There is very little substitute. It is a tall order finding ANY blade cut side swivel stock. Most Chinese replacements would look out of place...IF you can find blade cut. Put it in a Russian until the right stock comes along.