Bottom tang stamp|Page 2|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

Ive gone through the 1892 & 1894 pistol grip or deluxe rifles/carbines I have or owned in the past that I took photos of the tang marking, buttstock, & buttplate. The CF stamp, if applied, always follows the assembly number on the lower tang. On the 9 examples available to me (rifles & carbines) the CF appears on those having:

Blued finish.
Pistol Grip Shotgun butt.
Pistol Grip Crescent butt.
All examples have plain wood or with a little more figure than plain wood.
Checked stocks.
Unchecked stocks.
No pattern as to caliber.

Other observations:

Matching assembly numbers should appear on the tang, the end of the buttstock under buttplate, and oftentimes on the buttplate. It seems more common that the buttplate is stamped with assembly numbers on shotgun butts, sometimes on crescent butts and carbine butts.

Buttstocks will also have stamped the model– "92" or "94". On the buttstock the "94" stamp appears at the top, a large font "T" beneath it, then the assembly number.

If a shotgun butt, the tang will have the assembly number, CF, and an S or SB for shotgun butt. However, one of my deluxe rifles has an assembly number followed by only an "S", with matching assembly numbers on buttstock and buttplate.

The one thing I did notice is that the CF did not appear on rifles or carbines that had higher grades of wood, instead they are marked with an assembly number and with an "X" or series of X’s depending on the wood grade as we all have seen.

I also found a couple that had assembly numbers followed by an "R"–not sure what that denotes and why an "R" instead of "CF".

Just my two cents, maybe others can chime in to work towards the right answer, maybe someone already has?