Iraqi SKSs

[Zortron]

I’ve recently expanded my collection of Iraqis and thought I would make a post.

There’s not a lot of information about these guns, but they are identified by the Arabic letter jeem (ج) inside a triangle which is marked into the receivers.

One of the guns also has a BNP marking, I suspect it was probably imported to the UK before making its way to Canada.

The rest is photos. Unfortunately one of the guns was missing a magazine (anyone happen to have KM20A?).

I’d be very curious to see other examples if you happen to have one, or feel free to post your own Iraqi guns or uncommon SKS variants.

 

[Joel]

Oh wow, cool! never saw these in Canada before

 

[Scotty454]

Don't claim to know much about milsurps, but I had no idea SKSs were ever made in Iraq. Cool!

Edit: But isn't the star the Tula arsenal symbol?

 

[polkey]

They are standard Russian SKS's, just have Iraqi property marks (jeem). I have a vz52/57 with the same mark. Occasionally Mausers turn up with it as well. The Tariq pistols generally all have it as well.

 

[Zortron]

Don't claim to know much about milsurps, but I had no idea SKSs were ever made in Iraq. Cool!

Edit: But isn't the star the Tula arsenal symbol?

They weren’t made in Iraq. These are all Russians. They were accepted for military usage by the Iraqi army. The USSR provided the rifle to many nations and a number of them (Iraq, East Germany, Poland, etc) added their own identifying features or marks.

 

[KotKotofeich]

So it was you who grabbed the one at Switzer's? I thought about it but the butchered bolt handle turned me away...

As far as other Iraqi guns, there were Iraqi made Tariqs imported at one time...

 

[Zortron]

So it was you who grabbed the one at Switzer's? I thought about it but the butchered bolt handle turned me away...

As far as other Iraqi guns, there were Iraqi made Tariqs imported at one time...

Yea the 55 is from Switzer’s. I bid at the same price all the other Russians were going for expecting it to be bid up higher for the provenance— I was a bit surprised to get it.

The bolt handle is indeed modified which I neglected to show in the photos. Personally I don’t consider this a big issue— it’s anyone’s guess when this was done, and if it were done in Iraq I consider that a bit of character rather than a bad marring of the gun. But it is BNP marked so I assume it spent some time in the civilian market.

I regret not getting a Tariq when they were available.

 

[Scotty454]

They weren’t made in Iraq. These are all Russians. They were accepted for military usage by the Iraqi army. The USSR provided the rifle to many nations and a number of them (Iraq, East Germany, Poland, etc) added their own identifying features or marks.

Ah. Learned more stuff. Thanks! Lol

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

The Iraqi army property mark is something that translates to Jaish, and an ordinary Iraqi soldier was a Jundi. My nickname for the triangle mark is, figure 8 fishhook.

I was in Kuwait City in March 1991. We found lots of discarded Iraqi helmets, Chinese chest rigs, British '58 Pattern webbing, and Korean-made ordinary fibreglass helmets. Lots of Chinese and Russian oil bottles too. I have some of them. But ... never encountered an SKS. All the small arms, or more correctly found parts of small arms that the Kuwaiti Resistance and Palestinians hadn't scooped, were AKs and SVDs. A s#it ton of small arms ammunition, cases of grenades, and RPG projectiles, in with the tank and artillery ammunition. For about 10 minutes I had a Para FAL and wondered what I was going to do with it, until reality slapped me and I realized it had been burnt and was rusted solid.