Recently I bought an early Russian bolt/carrier combo for a project bubba, I was told it came from a 50....
I just found these for sale today....
The 49 cover in there has the same prefix letters as my bolt combo....only 1000ish later. It doesn't appear to be scrubbed to me....your thoughts are welcomed though. :)
(https://i.ibb.co/rkG3bVc/3covers-top.jpg) (https://ibb.co/Zd6SH0Y)
(https://i.ibb.co/D8c4m5N/3covers-back.jpg) (https://ibb.co/b2w1Yzx)
I checked the serial database, and only one SKS comes up with these prefixes.... a 1956 with the suffix character.
Is it possible that they started reusing the prefixes and that is why the suffix was added?
I can easily see an early cover being used on a 50, and that's how I ended up with a 49 or 50 setup, but it doesn't make sense to leap all the way to 56.
Found it interesting...and started up my speculatin' again. :)
I like your theory, Justin.
The ‘49 S/N at the very least is not original to that receiver cover. Wrong format, should be a one liner.
In all the examples I’ve ever seen, I’ve never seen a credible ‘49 with a two line receiver cover. Some say they exist and we can’t be sure when the transition happened, but again I’ve seen zero evidence of it.
The other two, who knows. This is why we only verify prefixes from as-issued guns or when a definitive prefix has been found from a min of 4 guns with identical years & characteristics. My best guess is that the ‘50 is correct. That reverse r was used extensively as a second prefix letter early on and then disappeared by ‘51 or ‘52.
I saw that listing too when I tried to find another 1948 or earlier receiver cover.
I think the top of the 1949 cover was scrubbed.