The only cartouche is that fancy P with a stamp 41 above it.  Those are the only marks on the stock.  The crazy thing is who can say what came with the original gun.  I get the feeling it was pieced together.  That said I love the history of the whole item.  Who put that front sight together; its very rough but well put on.  What of the barrel being cut?  I mean all the pieces look original just from different guns.  The rear sight too; was that a part of the original gun.  Likely not. Where have all these pieces traveled and to arrive together? I marvel at the history of each.

Cheers,

Etexastea



tanker wrote on Mar 11^th, 2012 at 9:15pm:

Is there a cartouche on the stock? The stock could be a "schools rifle" original from the look of the work. The barrel however is definitely an after the fact modification. An actual 22" turned down barrel is finished and crowned much much nicer. The extra length will preclude bayonet lock up as you stated. Correct length barrel necessitates removing the front sight blade in order to get the forward barrel band off, it appears the forward barrel band could be completely removed from the stock without doing that on yours. Still a nice looking rifle be fun to shoot.