Let play "Why did those zany Ruskies do that?"

[running-man]

Just like the description says.  Here's an 1953 SKS45 with something odd about it.  I think I know why, but let's do an exercise to see if others come to the same conclusion given the same evidence.

Tell me what's odd and more importantly, why it is like that!






(RM note: post updated to show photos from old photobucket links that were no longer working)

[running-man]

For bookkeeping purposes, all about the bookkeeping!

The "З" in Cyrillic stands for a Russian "Ze", derived from the Greek letter Zeta ("ζ").
It is very similar to the Arabic numeral three ("3") and the Cyrillic letter E ("Э")

The dot was used to separate the Cyrillic portion of the S/N from the numerical portion in areas where there was only room for a single line (receiver, magazine, trigger group, bolt carrier (likely the bolt and stock as well).  This enabled the Russians to quickly determine if a rifle was ИЗ 123 or И 3123 during processing.

On the receiver cover, there was no need for the separator as the Russians often separated the prefix from the number by simply starting a new line:


The stock, unfortunately is not original, so it's unknown whether they did this universally to all the S/N'd parts or not.


Interestingly enough I have another example of them doing this from a 1953 marked gun about 600 units later, with marked changes:

But notice, the dot is now no longer on all the piece parts:




The bolt carrier especially has a noticeable gap between the Cyrillic letters and the Arabic numerals, helping to decipher the S/N.  I'd guess they dropped the dot completely after a while into this S/N sequence.  It would have been highly useful for one, two, and three digit numbers, but somewhat useless after the numeral got to four digits as the Russians never went to five digits (as far as I know).

(RM note: post updated to show photos from old photobucket links that were no longer working)

[Worm]

Dot separating cyrillic & digits in serial

[Greatguns]

Besides the dot, the hex key screw on the left side of receiver where cover retaining pin goes .
As to why for either , who knows.

[agrace]

There is also what looks like a rivet in the mag. But like GG. I don't have a clue.

[Greasemonkey]

Oh, ya buncha noobs, the answer is easy, because they wanted too and they could, they know we like a good mystery.

OK, I got nothing, lay the wisdom on me, come on, the worlds a waiting, curious minds want to know the rest of the story, spill it, keeping us in suspense is not very nice, any day now sweetheart.

[Phosphorus32]

A decimal point is used because the Cyrillic "Zhe" could be mistaken for a 3.

[jusridin]

Waiting patiently at my desk, staring at the chalk board....

[Loose}{Cannon]

Its the dot

[Greasemonkey]

OK, the natives are getting restless, keep teasing, thing are gonna get ugly

This was Russia's first trial with,  the decimal point! . What's in your number?


Doh, they mis-stamped 3 backards, each and everytime, drunkin monkey with a stamp.

[Worm]

A decimal point is used because the Cyrillic "Zhe" could be mistaken for a 3.

Yup

[Greasemonkey]

A decimal point is used because the Cyrillic "Zhe" could be mistaken for a 3.

Yup

Don't yell, I just woke up, and see P32 learnt me sumthin.

[Loose}{Cannon]

I got it!!   Answer is below

°•°••:•::°•°°;:•`-*:••

Am I close?

[running-man]

Answer is in post 2.  Worm and P32 get the prize...which is well nothing.

The bolt in the receiver cover is likely bubba rearing his ugly head and replacing the original with a scope receiver cover and then going back to original now that he was selling it (and losing the original takedown lever %$#%$# ).  The rivet in the magazine is just a standard rivet as far as I can tell, nothing special there. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

Good stuff RM...  your really starting to crack these Russian serials.   

[running-man]

That dot drove me crazy from the first time I saw it.  It wasn't until the ИЗ2105 S/N popped up with identical markings that the light bulb went on. 

It will be interesting to see if other S/N with ?3XXXX have a dot or not.  Maybe The Russians avoided a "Ze" as a second digit in the prefix like they seemed to do with Э, Й, & Ч.

There's lots out there that we don't know...

[Dannyboy53]

Remarkable running-man...good "shot"!

[Greasemonkey]

Bah!!!!!  Like I said,  becuase they wanted to, and they could.

All this stress over a "." ,  a little simple dot, period, decimal point, OK, now really impress me, what's the Russian terminology for the "."?  Come on, you can do it, the ruskiefu is strong in you.

Oh, what's the point?

It is interesting, I've not seen one serialed in that fashion

[CARBINE]

Bah!!!!!  Like I said,  becuase they wanted to, and they could.

All this stress over a "." ,  a little simple dot, period, decimal point, OK, now really impress me, what's the Russian terminology for the "."?  Come on, you can do it, the ruskiefu is strong in you.

Oh, what's the point?

It is interesting, I've not seen one serialed in that fashion

We all know the stress of a simple period, it comes once a month and is the kryptonite of most men. this is a very interesting thread, and a very good hypothesis......one I can agree with.

[running-man]

I thought so too Carbine.  It would be neat to see a different prefix with the dot separator to see if I'm right or not.


Don't mind Carl, he's just grumpy because he doesn't know that a "." in Cyrillic is точка "Tochka" 
(That's 100% google translate by the way.  I pretend to be waaaay smarter than I actually am!)