HomelessJoe, In all the years you and I have shared this board, I do not think you have ever written anything I thought constructive or useful. However, on this point you and I are in agreement, it must be Christmas!
One does need to be careful here - action forgings from the like so of Phillipson were bought by the gun trade at large, bigger factories made their own for a time. One must not confuse the making of the forging with the filing up of the action.
All the manufacturing companies, and many small firms had actioners, whose job it is/was to make the basic gun into a gun shape from forged parts. Buoying barrelled actions, part-finished or completely finished guns from major factories took of in a major way in the 1880s. It was not uniform. Everyone did what they wanted on a particular order.
