I HAVE AN EARLY ,94 DELUXE 24″ RIFLE SER# 137206 WITH FACTORY PROOF MARKS ON THE TAKEDOWN BARREL AND RECEIVER. i RECENTLY SOLD THIS PIECE TO A QUESTIONABLY, VERY KNOWLEGEABLE COLLECTOR. HE RETURNED IT BECAUSE “THIS GUN IS TO EARLY TO BE PROOFED.” iT ALSO DOES NOT LETTER AS A RETURN AND REPAIR. I, M SURE THE GUN IS CORRECT BUT I SURE CAN,T EXPLAIN THE PROOF MARKS. ALSO THE GUN DOES NOT LETTER THE SHOTGUN BUTT, BUT DOES LETTER THE RUBBER BUTT PLATE. STRANGE???. ANY COMMENTS WOULD BE APPRECIATED. I ALSO HAVE SEVERAL ’94 s THAT HAVE FACTORY UNIQUE FEATURES INCLUDING SER# 1,343,643 MENTIONED IN RENNENBERG’S BOOK AS BEING FITTED WITH A ’64 barrel.
W.A.C.A. life member, Marlin Collectors Assn. charter and life member, C,S.S.A. member and general gun nut.
Your gun is a 1902 manufacture and they didn’t start proofing until 1905 so the buyer is correct. The thing is about the ledgers is they didn’t always record R&R’s so its my guess your gun did go back for a repair and got proofed. Some collectors don’t like proofs on a early gun and I can understand why he would send it back if he didn’t know about it before the purchase since it does affect the value. As to the shotgun butt, it did say Rubber Butt Plate which can only be on a shotgun butt gun so the gun does letter. The ledgers were from the warehouse so it was not a production record and things were omitted and recorded in error at times.
bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
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