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Hello, I am new here and have a Russian SKS imported by CDI. I have spent hours upon hours scouring this site and many others without any luck identifying the year or factory.
The stock and receiver cover have both been replaced with a composite stock and a UTG cover with scope mount.
I have many photos of every marking on the weapon and have not been able to match any symbols or markings to anything on the net.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bob
You have an early Soviet sks 45. The 45 degree angle forward gas port and the cutout are on the bolt (where the bolt serial # is located) indicate that your rifle was made in 1950 or 1951. The bolt design also means that you have a spring loaded firing pin, which was phased out and replaced with free floating firing pin some time in 1951. Your rifle will also have a milled step on the receiver fore-end and an early style rear sight block. It would be lovely to see it in an original soviet stock.
Are all the serial numbers matching?
In Russian an "r" followed by a number is often an abbreviated year of manufacture, the "r" being the abbreviation of year. So for example, if we observed "r43" or "r1943" on a weapon or other item it would indicate (manufactured in) 1943.
The "r" (phonetic hard "g" as in goat) is placed after the date--e.g. 1955r. I've heard it suggested on various forums that the year designator was included to prevent any confusion between dates of manufacture and serial numbers.
Apparently, the OP got tired of waiting for an initial response to his query.
My mistake about the position of the "r", due to bad memory. I suspect that the inclusion of an "r" in the date marking on soviet weapons has caused a fair amount of confusion of it's own, in the West. Interestingly, I have just had a look at a new arrival, a U.K. deactivated Mosin Nagant B.A. rifle that has, by the look of it, been Post War Soviet refurbished. There appears to be no "r" included in the date, just the numbers, but I also have another similar deac that hasn't been refurbished and that does have the "r" included in the date. Has anyone else noticed soviet weaponry of a certain age not having an "r" included in the date and is anyone able to explain the reason for this, please.