Bob,
You are absolutely right. What I had too quickly dismissed as some imperfection is, under glass, a badly stamped "5."
Yes, I'd noticed the lack of wings and also the peculiar "F" in the second serial number. Possibly salvaged barrels from an "F" grade that is a few years later than this C-grade??? The grade for the older barrels is stamped on the flats, bboth barrel and action rather than on a tube. Any historical consistency in that? A related consistency question is whether Lefever abandoned wings at some definite point -- or were lower grades generally made without wings?
Regards, Tim
