1954 Izhevsk

[jmaurer]

I decided to pony up to fill one of the remaining open slots in the collection. I have to say that this was one of the more difficult rifles to photograph; the stock gave me fits when trying to avoid glare. I've tried to capture all of the inspection marks that I could, but there's so many that I might have missed some. I'll split up the images - there's a lot of them!

[jmaurer]

The next batch starts with the gas tube and piston:

[jmaurer]

Continuing forward with the trigger group:

[jmaurer]

Onward with receiver proofs and more:

[echo1]

Great job, most excellent photo shoot, beautiful specimen, PAX

[jmaurer]

Always more photos, but I'm determined to wrap it up:

[jmaurer]

Great job, most excellent photo shoot, beautiful specimen, PAX

Thanks, echo1! I culled a lot of photos and edited nearly every single one I've posted here; this has to be the most thoroughly inspected firearm I've ever seen! The rifle has seen some use since import, but despite the local cleaned surface corrosion it's a nice example, and I'm really happy to have added it to the pile. I contemplated the 1953 refurb discussed recently, but I've got to pick and choose for now (and slave away for overtime SKS funds!).

[echo1]

I'm sure Boris will get a woody over the presentation, PAX

[Phosphorus32]

Nice score! Beautiful SKS! Great pictures! 

Are you missing the magazine serial number shot?

[jmaurer]

Thanks, Phos! As I loaded them, the bottom of the magazine box should be the 21st photo in the second group of images. It was one of the photos that I had to take several times, and I had to paste it in to the appropriate place by renaming all the photos with sequential numbers (and in some cases with an a, b, c, etc. suffix). Is the original as-applied photo designation perhaps throwing it out of sequence for your browser? I can see it in it's intended order; let me know if you can't, and I'll add it after this (or edit the post)!

[Direct Connection]

I got arthurites in my mouse scrolling finger. That is one of the nicest 54s I ever seen. Great score and nice picture package. Thats how its done right there : ) 

[Phosphorus32]

Thanks, Phos! As I loaded them, the bottom of the magazine box should be the 21st photo in the second group of images. It was one of the photos that I had to take several times, and I had to paste it in to the appropriate place by renaming all the photos with sequential numbers (and in some cases with an a, b, c, etc. suffix). Is the original as-applied photo designation perhaps throwing it out of sequence for your browser? I can see it in it's intended order; let me know if you can't, and I'll add it after this (or edit the post)!

I found it  Thanks 

[running-man]

Great photo spread Jmaurer! 

If I had a photo spread like this for each country, year, flavor, etc., I would use them as the gold standard example when describing any particular feature or trait.  Very nicely done indeed. 

[Cz315]

Nice carbine and great job on presentation!

[jmaurer]

Great photo spread Jmaurer! 

If I had a photo spread like this for each country, year, flavor, etc., I would use them as the gold standard example when describing any particular feature or trait.  Very nicely done indeed. 

Thank you VERY much, Running Man! I've often wondered if I'm in the wrong line of work...

[MikeT]

Very nice piece. Awesome job with the photos. I too wonder if my career in the social sciences was the right direction. Much of my free  time is dedicated to military history and firearms. Thanks for sharing

[Boris Badinov]

I'm sure Boris will get a woody over the presentation, PAX

Hard to say. First off I'm Gonna need more photos...

[Boris Badinov]

Seriously, though...

99.999% of the time that I see multiple crossbolt stamps on both sides of a soviet stock, I'm looking at  a rifle that exhibits every indication of a having gone straight from the factory and into longterm storage.

Pretty sure that's the case with this rifle too.


IMHO, this is an never-issued rifle.  The carbon on the piston head, and the wear on the bolt face (popped primer?) occurred after import.


Nice catch. Top-shelf (professional) photo display.

[jmaurer]

Thanks for the compliments, guys! This one seemed particularly worthy of extra effort for a photo spread, though it took a couple of days to get most of the shots right. Fun to do, though

[Worm]

Gorgeous rifle dude, great pics..

I have a 54’ Izhevsk in nowhere near the same shape as yours, but I did notice the blueing on mine is different than any other SKS I’ve owned & I noticed yours looks similar; like the blueing almost looks like it has a cold blue finish-like coat with that extra “blue tint” that leaves fingerprints, blue streaks & smears behind more easily. Especially noticeable on the receiver. Would you say that yours is kinda like that in person?

I don’t believe they’re actually cold blued obviously, but the blueing definitely seems to have a unique look on these over others IMO.

Nice score