Hello, I ordered a couple of Chinese SKS's from Royal Tiger Imports back in early 2014 and am just now getting around to cleaning them up and learning more about them. I uploaded the details on both to the survey form. One is SN# 71793 and is in pretty good shape. From my reading, I'm pretty certain it would be considered a 5-digit ghost gun. The other, not nearly as nice looking, has SN# OB1680. I'm not certain where it lands in the timeline based on that serial number. I am thinking it may be either a Russian sneak or Chinese "letter" gun. It has no Chinese triangle factory stamp, but the number "26" is stamped on the lower left receiver and also on the left side barrel lug. It has no Tula star, but it does have a Russian style gas tube lever with thumb tab. Dust cover and stock are mismatched. Please let me know what you think. Thank you!
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Here you can see both "26" stamps on receiver and barrel lug.
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Nice score! What you actually have there is what we call a Russian sneak. That's actually a Russian gun, that got mixed in with Chinese imports and stamped as a Chinese import. Russia sent guns to aid China early on, and it was common for the Chinese to replace the Russian receiver covers with a Chinese one which is why yours doesn't match. You've actually got a Russian gun there :-)
Definitely a Russian sneak you have there. The 26 at the lower left front portion of the receiver is a barrel match number. You'll see that there is a matching 26 under the circle K on the left side of the barrel lug. This 26 has nothing to do with the Chinese /26\ factory stamp which will always be on the upper half (so as to be seen when the stock is one) of the left side of the receiver.
I've got OB prefixes from both 1949 and 1955. I think that gas tube takedown lever precludes the '55 though there's no guarantee that it's original to this gun. Your bolt configuration is certainly not a '49, but again, is it original to this gun? The receiver is the one thing that never gets changed out and it is in a post '52 configuration. The gun really looks like a '52 or '53 to me. There's no easy way to narrow it down any farther though.
Awesome, thank you! Can't wait to shoot them.
Fuzzy you lucky rascal, that's just cooler than a popsicle!