The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

I'd like to discuss the late date M39 rifles, and their dates for a moment. It's my understanding that they were made from 1967-70, as well as a few in 1973.

That was at least until I saw a post of this particular 1978 rifle in a Facebook group I'm a member of:
Upon thinking about and looking at a few things, I Believe that this particular rifle may have been dated incorrectly at the armory. Here are the reasons why:

First, the serial number of the gun also ends in 78, I think it's possible that the armorer may have accidentally mixed up the serial and date when stamping it.

Next, it's possible it could have been intended to be a 1969 or 70, but the armorer accidentally used a 8 stamp. Maybe the armorer forgot his glasses that day, and a 8 does look similar to a 9 or a 0(if the 0 has a slash through the center like some fonts have).

Finally, and I think most convincingly, is the serial number. These late date rifles started at around 300000 and the serials increased sequentially. For example: my 1967 rifle is 300793, my 1968 rifle is 302330, and my 1970 rifle is 305289. I have seen 1970 rifles and 1973 rifles in the 306000 range as well. The 1978 dated rifle is serial 305278, precisely 11 places before my 1970 with serial 305289. Here is a photo of my 1970, and another with a higher serial I found on the internet:
The 1978 rifle is super neat and an oddity for sure, but unless anyone has seen other examples of these past 1973, I don't think that's a correct date.
What does everyone else think?

Any of the things mentioned could be the case, or this is just a training rifle that was rebarreled in 1978. Some years back someone commented on a video I posted on youtube about having been marksmanship trained with the M39 during his military service in 1982, so these rifles were still around and in use during the 70's. Spare parts would have been around then, and I imagine armorers would have been training on M39's at that time also. Could be other non military reasons the rifle has the 1978 date on it but a simple barrel update is the most likely reason.

That looks like a real 1978 dated rifle. As far as I knew, they only went up to 1973. If Facebook didn't suck so bad, I'd like to have seen that on there.

It's a 1970 production Late Date that was mislabeled with the 1978 (8 instead of 0) most likely. The serial is not high enough to postdate 1970 production. This happened at times, I know of "1669" dated Late Date where they messed up the "6" and the "9".

That being said, only one 1973-dated m/39 exists, and it is a rework of a 1941 Sako m/39, and not a true Late Date.