Just took the rifle out of the stock and I see no sign of any form of stock cracking. Based on how much jacket fouling I am getting out of the bore and the overall even condition of all the parts (i.e. bolt looks about as worn as reciever, which looks as weathered as the Lyman 48 [reads to 125] and the front sight), this rifle has been shot a LOT in this stock. Beautiful bore, just a LOT of copper and fouling. I got the D. W. King "Reflector" front sight cleaned up and it's a marvel. Should be good for 10-15 more minutes in the Tennessee highlands easy. A good friend of mine whose judgement I trust said, "Whoever did that rifle knew what they were doing."
My guess is this rifle was sporterized immediately before or after WW2 using a gunsmith's parts on hand and/or a DCM catalog.
