Yeah, I was playing the devil's advocate from a period standpoint, and like you said the mindset of anti-Mauser, our's is better. Until the Mauser design was realized in the US and then copied for the 1903 Springfield. Went full circle as we know. I have a 98 Mauser receiver in a 35 Whelen custom and know of its virtues.

I wonder where all of the machinery went. Some stay at the Armory? Junk heap? Some other company or individuals get them?

I am not a machinist, but part of my job is overseeing a machine shop for a tire plant. We have a Bullard turn table from WWI era all the way up to CNC machines. It is interesting to see that the tooling has not changed much, just the machinery that applies them.