Posted 17 August 2005 - 11:02 PM
Devlin,
Anything is possible, but until DR can shed some light on my questions (although who knows when he will return to the board again) I am befuddled why all of his Navy stocks are sans anchors and Enfield swivels? Sure refinishing could remove the anchor if the person doing the refinishing was indifferent to such things, but as you surmised, WWII swivels might have been added in 1940's or 1990's(?) to a (now) unmarked buttstock, that may or may not have been of Remington manufacture, or was of 1940 manufacture, and, therefore, not in any way related to the 1928 Colt Navy stock.
How and where did DR happen to stumble across such a stash of strangely fitted out stocks, all of them refinished, and with blued latches and R's on their latches in addition to the usual ones found on the inside buttplates?
And since he described his "early" Savage stocks that he once had for sale as indistinguishable from the Colt Navy ones, I'm thinking what was the buyer getting for the extra $50 for the Navy ones?
If Savage/AO had contracted Remington in 12/39 to make brand new latches for their 19 year old stocks, or even brand new stocks, buttplates and latches (although Maguire surely got all the extra complete stocks from the Marcellus Thompson/Kane deal in 1939) whose latches were now (in 1940) sporting the Remington "R," why would they end their relationship with Savage/AO at the exact time the big orders were rolling in? In other words, if Maguire was willing to commit to Remington for new slides, why wouldn't he have them continue to make the complete stocks as well? Would Remington even bother with such a small order for a handful of latches?
And since gijive hit on the notion that as the serial number on the stocks got higher Remington was stamping their buttplates with one less "R," is it likely that in 1940 they were now adding an additonal "R" to their latches?
Since the only marking on the Colt/Remington 1921 wood is the anchor, even though not all left the factory so emblazoned, and a stash of all refinished (to explain the lack of anchor) stocks that were adapted for WWII Savage/AO TSMG's with milled or stamped regular swivels, and early WWII numbered and blued latches, then their origin is definitely in doubt. If only one of these DR "Navy" stocks still had the anchor at least we could be certain of the wood.
The only mystery is the "R" on the inside buttplate, as one would find on a Remington buttplate, and now the addition of the "R" on the latch where on the 15,000 Colt production TSMG's non appeared.
Maybe the "R" does stand for "Reject." But surely the font would have changed over the 19 year period, or maybe not. We need to see that damn "R" on antoniah2's buttplate and latch.
If DR's "R" is similar to Remington's "R" then this isn't going to help matters.
As far as milling marks inside the receiver, I don't see the connection with uneven crater like finishes around the inside of the buttplate trap door. The receiver is hollowed out, the door is just, or should be, a clean tapered hole. Did you ever see the stocks you purchased attached to the Colt TSMG they once belonged to, or were they always floating around loose when you found them?