Picked up a Russian refurb sks w/ a Iraqi proof mark

Neighbor guy walked over to my house today, knowing I buy any type of firearm I can get my hands on. His dad passed away and one of the things he left him was an old sks rifle. To make a long story short, the guy asked me if I wanted to buy it for $50! I couldn't pull the money fast enough. Anyways, it's a typical russian refurb. I know a little about SKS's, but not a lot. It's a tulsa rebuild stamped 1954R with the rebuild stamp. None of the serial numbers match, and it has a laminate wood stock. But the finish is still a nice deep blue, not that black crap.

Anyways, the thing that confuses me the most. It has what I figured out is an iraqi proof mark stamped on it. The triangle with an upside down two. I'm just wondeirng how it came to Ohio? I didn't think any Iraqi weapons have been imported unless maybe some came in during the first gulf war. But the thing is, there are no import marks on it at all. I even took it out of the stock to make sure. Other than the russian stamps, and that one Iraqi stamp that is all that is on it.

The guy's father was both a Korean and a Vietnam vet. Before I figured out what the triangle stamp was, I thought maybe this rifle was a vietnam bring-back. Since the guy did say his father brought some guns back from vietnam. But he didn't know if this was one of them. And the other guns were all sold a long time ago. I figured though since this has an iraqi stamp that it wouldn't be a vietnam bringback.

Were Iraqi sks's imported sometime long ago, without import stamps on them?

Any ideas?

Post pics...

I got the mag sitting in some clp right now trying to get a few small rust spots off, so it's not in the pic. The cleaning rod was missing. But those are easy to find. And I won't complain for $50.

It's not the prettiest. But I think it will clean up nicely. Tomorrow I'm going to really give it a detailed field strip and scrub. I'm thinking about refinishing the laminated stock. But I just wanted to make sure before I do it, I wouldn't hurt the value or anything like that. I didn't know if these are like old Gi weapons, better to leave them alone. What do you guys think, will it hurt it any to refinish it? I have a friend who is a cabinent maker by trade and he always does all my gun stocks and makes them look brand new.

Here are the pics.

Pics of the marking?

What he said, left side of receiver..... It sounds like a Chinese SKS receiver......

I'm pretty sure it's russian. The receiver has an H N 3066. I looked at yooper john's website to identify the markings. But the receiver looks like it's an really early russian. In fact Yooper's sight says it's an early what's called Russian 1950 receiver with the step in the receiver. The triangle with an upside down 2 on my receiver matches up perfectly with the one on his sight that is an Iraqi symbol. It's identical.

Here is a pic, but not the best. Hope this helps.

I'm curious to know where this came from.

Here's about as good as I can get with the camera

http://i621.photobucket.com/albums/tt293/cplnorton2/sks2005-1.jpg

I might clean up the surface rust a bit (very lightly with 0000 steel wool and oil!) and leave it alone after that. None of these were imported into the States unless they got mixed in with the Russians before 1994.

It is collectible, and worth many times what you paid. Not like a papered NVN bringback at $1200 or more, but a collector might dump $500 on it quick. Refinishing could detract from the value.

Incredible find.


Edit to note: I am purely guessing at the value as I don't have any links to support actual transactions. I searched SKS boards and found only a few references to Iraqi stamped SKS's here in the US. Might be worth a whole lot more.....

Again, a guess.

Wow, that is great. I've been researching it all day, and all I can find is some USGI's talking about Iraqi marked Sks' overseas, but other than that that I can't find anything else. I called the guy I bought it off and tried to find any more info on it. All he says he can remember is it's been at his house since before he can remember. He's like 25-30, and he thought it had been there that long. I think it would be intersting to find out how it got over here.

There's any number of ways it could've been obtained - from being a Desert Storm bringback that changed a few hands to... anything, really. Many SKS rifles that were found in Iraq were given the Iraqi "jihm" or acceptance stamp. There's several rifles on Gunbroker and throughout the internet for sale with the "jihm" stamp (Mausers, etc.). Many of those were simply imported that way as teh rifles just wound up in the arsenals of the countries doing the exporting (via captures, etc.). Some older rifles with those stampings have quite a varied history behind them.

Great find. I would personally keep it because it's rather unique.

That marking on the Russian SKS appears to be an Iraqi acceptance mark. The Iraqi's had apparently imported both Chinese and Russian SKS rifles over the years (late 1960's earliest I have seen).

That's actually an "N" and a "P."

Copyright © 1996 - 2013 :: AR15.Com LLC :: All Rights Reserved.
Any use of this content without express written consent is prohibited.