I don't usually do this but this will show how difficult it is to interpret these early stock book entries. Here is Mark's gun entry in the stock book. I believe it was Gunther who edited these entries in red ink. He must have though the "D" was a "P" and elongated the stem of the "P" with red ink. Just to the right of the "D", he wrote in red ink what looks like a "5". If you zoom in, you can see what looks like a "2" and just below it what looks like a "5" in black ink. If it's a "2" it's equivalent to a "G" grade hammer gun, if it's a "5", it's equivalent to a "B" grade hammer gun. To my eyes, and others, it sure looks like a "D" grade hammer gun so where is the "3"? We all know that the engraving in this time frame varies a lot. Would a grade "2" have this much engraving and would a grade "5" have so little?
I was hoping that the barrel flat would have the number grade stamped in but I guess the gun is just to early for that. The only other way that would indicate it's a grade "4" or above would be to count the crolles in each band but with the condition of the barrels he may not be able to tell.
Let me know what you think.
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