[SfcRet]

this got me curious, so I GOOGLE'd the Cyrillic and it pointed me to a Russian gun board forum. from what I was able to gleen. Х.О.Д.К.А means Харьковский Окружной Дом Красной Армии (Kharkov District home (of the) Red Army)

the only thing I can imagine why this would be stamped as "experimental", is perhaps the military district had a small factory and made them locally for their forces.

while I was at the Russian forum, someone posted a picture of a 1895 that was made by optics factory, ГОМЗ (GOMZ) Государственный оптико-механический завод, (State Optical-Mechanical Factory). now that is a very interesting and very historical piece, far more historically then any other 1895, IMO. that factory was located in Leningrad, that pistol was made at the height of the siege. 1941-1944

 

[SfcRet]

And since it is single action does the fact of it being single action have something to do with what ever was being experimented? Any thoughts?

early, they made 2 versions of the 1895, single action for enlisted/NCO double action for officers. not 100 percent sure, but I believe that they did away with the single action only models later and made them all double action

as for the word experimental, you have to realized that words in one language doesn't necessary have the same meaning as in another., while the word experimental means a certain connotation in English, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the only meaning in Russian, it can also have another meaning all together

take the word Дом (doma), that word means home, for us, home means a private resident where we live in, or , or what city we're from. in Russian it also means that as well as house and establishment as well, depending on how it's used. a lot of words in English, don't necessarily mean the same thing in other languages, it can, but may also have another meaning and visa versa

that's the whole problem when you try to fit certain words that translate into English into English meanings. some fit, but it also could have a different meaning as well.