letter dated SKS's

hacer2

hacer2

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I was Yooper John looking up some SKS stuff when I saw something about letter dated Tula SKS's (D=1956)(I=1957)(K=1958)
anyone have more information on this. would this mean Russians made SKS's right up till 58?
Or im I just drunk, lost, scared and confused on the vastness of the internet

h ttp://www.yooperj.com/SKS-24.htm
 
Assembled then with spare parts maybe. They would have shiped off the tooling off to china and posibly some other allies by then.
 
A relatively new theory, brought forward ion the last year or so. Unproven, but makes some sense. No less believable than somebody claiming unissued status on an SKS, as though they were part of the Red Army supply chain 60 years ago.
 
I have a 55/56 K series laminate all matching with no refurb marks. Stock has no ###xx's and proper stamps around crossbolt are present. Scored it from Lever when they had their 159.00 x mas sale.
SN. B£ 6236.
 
From what I read the theory comes from the dating methods from then, appenrently makarovs from thoses year had the same letters and so did ammo but I have yet to see ammo
 
Below is a Russian website on the development of the PM Makarov pistol with information that coincides with information on the "Letter Dated" SKS year of production of these rifles. From what we know there were three different "Letter Dated" codes Russian "D" (looks like this#Д),#Russian "I" (looks like this##Й)#and the Letter "K" that#is the same as our letter "K" (looks like this#К).#From this information on these codes the production dates are 1956 -#Д, 1957 -#Й#and#К#- 1958. The codes appear to be the same for production of weapons and ammo at this time period.#http://pm9.ucoz.ru/index/ehvoljucija_pm/0-63eres


the quote from the site
 
Then why are there so few 1955r dated examples? Are the no-date varieties that don't have letter code suffixes also 1955?

I think the theory has value, but that would mean the Soviets had enough spare parts to assemble SKS's well after the tooling was sold to China in 1956.

I was skeptical at first, but the Makarov dating parallel has really strengthened this theory. Damn, I now need 3 more SKS's. :(

Note... I made a correction above. I meant suffix not prefix.
 
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The Kurgan said:
Then why are there so few 1955r dated examples? Are the no-date varieties that don't have letter code prefixes also 1955?

I think the theory has value, but that would mean the Soviets had enough spare parts to assemble SKS's well after the tooling was sold to China in 1956.

I was skeptical at first, but the Makarov dating parallel has really strengthened this theory. Damn, I now need 3 more SKS's. :()
Click to expand...

Maybe they didn't send all the tooling, just some of it which slowed production. They had tooling in at least two arsenals, and their have been rumors for smaller refurbishing arsenals in addition to Tula and Izzy. It could be possible that the no suffix undated versions could be later 55 versions.
 
I have 2 55/56 refurbs with black bayo's and birch stock, but am away ,will check the letters when home! It may be like the old S&W .44 russians which made a load of frames before 1897 and were putting them together till I think around1914!
 
I've got 5 letter numbered guns. Thing is 4 of them are on one. :) Letter numbered Tula star receiver with a bunch of misc. numbered parts. Not a refurb and well used. The other is a 1956, unrefurbished and correct right down to the laminate stock, according to the site.

Grizz
 
The Kurgan said:
Then why are there so few 1955r dated examples? Are the no-date varieties that don't have letter code prefixes also 1955?

I think the theory has value, but that would mean the Soviets had enough spare parts to assemble SKS's well after the tooling was sold to China in 1956.

I was skeptical at first, but the Makarov dating parallel has really strengthened this theory. Damn, I now need 3 more SKS's. :()
Click to expand...


I have an "I" letter gun, As issued/ Non Refurb. These seem most common. I am still waiting for a WestRifle D letter gun to arrive. The D and K letter guns seem to be in lesser quantity and more scarce. At least from what I have seen. Don't know why that is considering according to the theory the D was made first then the I then the K. Why is the "I" most numerous? Unless the importers just happened to have had access to where most of the "I" rifles were being stored?....
 
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