About like yours perhaps eastbank except earlier ‘artifacts’ including four digit SN. Pix of mine particularly featuring such early apparent differences. One notable, my early barrel w/nickel steel nomenclature. Perhaps later editions proof steel? Beyond pix of entire rifle, that of: rear sight, front sight likely typical, butt plate. Possible contrast, mine also with upper tang markings.
All here for whatever elucidation… ? ? ?

Congrats David, in finding an apparent quite nice Mod 53!
Best!

Thanks for all your comments and interest guys,

first for Bert,

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/s8kxv706xabhmql/AAA4sOlE7xj34Ubwx7kgOoPua?dl=0

I hope that light is good enough, it’s overcast and raining here today,  it is certainly better light than the shed and I must say I am very embarrassed about the condition of my rifle, it was and is still a bit dirty and looks terribly unloved.

in my defence she was carted about in the front of the work Ute for a year on and off. And that leads me to the nature of my hunting and to answer your questions about the pigs. I was so incredibly lucky to be working on a large outback station where I could carry my firearms with me on a daily basis, and as such the nature of my shooting varied greatly, my workhorse was a  weatherby vanguard .223 rem with 60 gr nosler  varmints for light skinned game and 60 gr nosler  partitions for the feral pigs, I was super lucky that point of impact was so close to being the same for these two rounds. I loaded them with 26.5 grains of AR 2208 for around 3100fps, a hot load and right at maximum but worked beautiful for me. 
pig shooting would generally consist of me running into a mob of pigs, often with 20 or so mid sized pigs, plenty of little ones and a few decent boars lurking nearby. The .223 would take care of the biggest ones and then invariably it would be a wild ride chasing the remainder of the mob down, ringing them into a circle and the .25-20 could pick of a few of the smaller pigs. I have only used the factory Winchester rounds so far in this rifle I have plans to reload for it but have had some trouble sourcing brass, I have probably put 300-400 rounds through it but only have a fraction of that brass to show for it as the ejector is fantastically strong.

i would occasionally come across a larger pig and usually would aim for the butt of the ear, with both the .25-20 and the .223 I have found that to be most effective. But I’m not sure I can really recommend the .25-20 for a 100% humane solution 100% of the time.  But as has been said shot placement is key, I have seen a dirty great big sow dropped with a .22 magnum, I have also seen a buck kangaroo take a jaw shot from a .300 Wby and keep going. So nothing is guaranteed, but I do understand we have a responsibility to ‘use enough gun’.

thanks to everyone for their contributions

cheers

Dave

Thanks Mike,

I sure was lucky in those years. Our pigs are effectively wild domestic pigs, so they are a bit softer than some others around the world. We plant forage oats as a winter feed and one year in a paddock next to some overgrown brigalow regrowth I saw between 80 and 120 pigs streaming off the paddock, they were like black lines running down the shallow gullies into the timber. I had the .25-20 with me that day and she accounted nicely for a few of the tail Enders, but if I’m honest I was to shocked and awed to make much of the opportunity, I didn’t know wether to go for rifle or camera and it took a moment to pick my jaw up off the ground. 

I also have that .300Wby, that certainly stopped everything, I’m lucky with that rifle too, it’s more accurate than I am that’s for sure, I fired it off a lead sled once and it made a cloverleaf hole at 100 yards.

i have always dreamed of a .38-55, and when I get a bit more settled down I want to look into casting my own bullets as well, and if I could find a western action shooting club nearby I’d be all over it like a fat kid on cupcakes.

thanks,

Dave