Dan, are there clear pictures of the jeweling of the bolts? The one pictured, #657,895 together with the use of Black Walnut, full checkering coverage, and the shape of the grip would point me to early John Oberlies. Oberlies was an exceptional mechanic and machinist, but his earlier identified guns were more crude and possibly unmarked. Of course, there should have been a transition period. My earliest Oberlies gun was built in 1934 and exhibits less than his best work of the next few years. I have seen earlier guns that were quite crude. I don't think Michael had much of a file of pictures of Oberlies guns to compare the S Man guns to. He and I were planning to get together to do an Oberlies chapter in his next book, but, sadly, we didn't get to it. The Oberlies gun sold in the auction was not a full Oberlies custom, but a conversion of a military stock. He had not owned that gun for long when he died and possibly did not do a comparison with S Man guns. I wish I knew more. Bill Murphy in MD.
