I'm going to stay out of this for a while, you guys are doing just fine and I enjoy the reasoning behind the answers.
Regarding the gap, I suspect, but don't know that the magazine may have dropped down a bit when the picture was taken. I have been working on restoring a Wundhammer and had to fit new bottom metal. Wundhammer fitted it so tight that I had to knock it out with a nylon punch and hammer from the top. He inletted the metal proud then rounded it off to the wood. I could not do that and was afraid of breaking something so I relieved the wood a touch so I could get the metal in and out, about a hundred times. After almost a hundred years the wood could have shrunk up some as well. I am not saying this rifle is a Wundhammer.
