Ken,
that crescent is very easy to machine into an action body. I'm not convinced it was part of the forging. I think if I was going to make some of those actions, adding the crescent cut would be much easier than building a new die for the forging. Just one guys opinion.
Steve
Steve,
A good point. That begs the next question, within the historical context. Was this typical in pre-WWI guns? In today's technology, machining a crescent would be easy. Was it common back then when the technology was not so advanced? I'm not sure, as I suspect it would have to have been hand-filed. Were any other scalloped actions of the time filed or machined? I suspect they were forged with the scalloped back edges already present. It appears the crescent shaped receiver was not uncommon, so I'm somewhat skeptical that the crescents were not part of the forging process.
Regards
Ken
