Anybody recognize these symbols?

[Wyo]

I recently acquired an M1 carbine that has these symbols carved in the stock. They aren’t normal alphabet letters. Maybe some sort of Hebrew characters? Do any of you recognize any of these symbols?

 

[mrchick]

Looks like numbers to me. Maybe 315227.

 

[Wyo]

My photo could be better, but the two symbols that look a little like “2’s” are actually 4 dots. Like putting a dot at each corner of a square.

 

[Alk8944]

Can't really make anything out of any of it! You would probably do better to do a "rubbing" of the marks, then photograph the rubbing and submit that. Rubbings are commonly done to well-worn grave marker/monument texts, generally the rubbings are much more legible than a direct photo of the stone!

If you don't know how to do this "Google" "Rubbing grave markers" and you will find out how to do it best.

 

[yaktamer]

"Kilroy was here."

 

[Wyo]

Here’s a rub. Still pretty indistinct but better. A lot of these rifles went to Israel at one time, and this sort of has a Hebrew look to me, though I may well be wrong. Any ideas?

 

[Onomea]

I tried messin' with it with various IOS filters but not much progress:



Intriguing. Good luck!

 

[Wyo]

This is a marked up photo that I used to trace the symbols as best I could. Maybe this will help.

 

[Rudi]

Looks like 315::7. The 1 is written that way in Europe. What could the dots mean?

 

[LVSteve]

Looks almost Japanese.

 

[chief38]

Telephone number or address of a Geisha Girl? lol..... Could be just about anything important to the soldier who did that. I doubt you'll even know for sure.

 

[Dave.357]

It will sand right out.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

It is the mark of Satan.

Or not...........

 

[Wyo]

I got it. It’s the serial number of the rifle. The number is 3158879. The 315 is obvious. The dots are the upper and lower loops of the two eights. They aren’t connected but it makes sense. The 7 is clear, then the 9 was either never carved in or it’s worn away. Somebody just wasn’t very good with a knife!

 

[16thVACav]

Rosebud

 

[mrchick]

I got it. It’s the serial number of the rifle. The number is 3158879. The 315 is obvious. The dots are the upper and lower loops of the two eights. They aren’t connected but it makes sense. The 7 is clear, then the 9 was either never carved in or it’s worn away. Somebody just wasn’t very good with a knife!

I was close[emoji1]

 

[Eric300]

Here's what I see;

L :: SVE

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong....

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

Not Hebrew as used for the last 2500 years or so. Probably not old Canaanite, either. Those dots don't fit anywhere except maybe that unfinished eight explanation.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

It's actually the owner's blood type, but he misspelled it, and, through no fault of his own, he happened to be dyslexic.

Mystery solved!