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Soviet repair depot markings

Soviet and Russian arsenal marks · 1920s to 1991, in two clearly different periods.
What it looks like
Small stamps on the barrel shank, receiver and stock — a number, a district abbreviation, or a geometrical shape such as a triangle, square or arrow inside a shape.
Where it is on the gun
Barrel shank, receiver and stock.
Date range
1920s to 1991, in two clearly different periods.

What it tells you

What this mark authorises you to say

Which repair depot was responsible for servicing the rifle — and with it, the answer to the question almost every seller gets wrong. These are commonly called "refurbishment markings", and the specialist literature states that is the wrong term: the markings were not applied to record that a repair happened, and there are no markings at all meaning "wood repaired" or "metal refinished", a claim that earlier sources made and that is simply incorrect. Their purpose was to record which depot did the work. Markings from the prewar, wartime and early postwar period carry a depot number or a military-district abbreviation; from the late 1940s to 1991 they are geometrical shapes without numbers. Depots fell into three kinds — Arsenals, Central Artillery Armament Bases (CABV) and Artillery Armament Bases (ABV) — and mobile workshops also existed in the field.

What it does not tell you

What this mark does NOT say

They do not date the original manufacture, and they do not mean the rifle is unsafe, inaccurate or "a rebuild" in the pejorative sense that sellers imply. A rifle refurbished at a depot may be in better specification than one that never was. Nor do these stamps identify the factory that made the rifle — that is a separate mark, and a mismatched one means the rifle was re-assembled from parts.

Where the sources are uncertain

The identification of specific depot symbols rests largely on the research of one Russian researcher, Ruslan Chumak, whose tables circulate in translation. It is the best work available and it is not an official publication.

Sources for this page

Every claim above is attributed. The class of source is shown with each one, because a national proof house and an anonymous forum table are not the same evidence — and on proof marks the difference matters.

Related on this site

Makers whose guns carry marks like this:

Reading marks to identify and date a gun

Proof marks name the test and the era. The serial number, where a maker published a browsable chart, can name the year. The lookup cites the threshold behind every result.

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Other soviet and russian arsenal marks

Mark descriptions observed and verified 2026-10-14. Proof marks are stamped by hand on guns up to a century old; a photographed stamp and a description in a book are not the same evidence. If a mark on your gun does not match anything here, that is a real answer — see the notes on unidentified marks.