Whoa Back at Ya! A few problems with your argument:
1.This whole issue started about research AND VERIFICATION of him, versus us and your statement pretty well sums up the problem. The rifle's provenance is "pretty well established" is that like, being kinda pregnant?
No............it's not like being "kinda pregnant". The provenance of O'Connor's Minar rifle goes far beyond any research Petrov might have done on it. That you are unaware of that hardly refutes the fact that it exists.
2.When I Google a combination of search terms Jobson/O'Connor/Minar/Rifle I get exactly 2 articles, Jobson's orignal 1966 and Hill's 1988 and no identifiable photos.
Congratulations on your Internet prowess. If dependence on that media is your primary research criteria for pre-war custom rifles....you're lost without help.
Go purchase a copy of the 1980 April American Rifleman. Article by Bob Hills, interview with Jobson just before he died, and multiple pictures of the Minar Springfield. Further perusal of O'Connor's Rifle & Hunting Rifle books will show pictures of the gun and it's many changes. Including multiple scopes and mounts, metal buttplate removed for recoil pad installation, new bolt and safety, and Lyman receiver sight removed and wood patch applied.
Several knowledgeable people I'm familiar with saw the O'Connor Minar rifle at the ACGG show in Reno. I was not so lucky. It was gone before I arrived.
If you have an issue with its provenance..........you have a host of people to discredit, far beyond Mr. Petrov. You should give that issue a rest.
