Johann Nowotny, Prag 1865-1900, a fine maker and worth the time and effort to restore. Please update us as the work progresses. Would that have had a "Lollipop" sight on the tang?
Thanks Michael,, I think the site base is most probably for one of those type. Perhaps with the windage adj in the disc as well. But I do think it was added later to the rifle from the looks of it. The attachment method, the wood screw base is out of character for the rest of the rifle I think and there's no area in the 'patch box' inletted for anything specific. Just my guesses. I'll probably eliminate it from the rifle as I look at it now, but that could change as I get to work on it (sometime!) and do some research on it as best I can.
A small wood inlay to match the grain taken from a slice of the stock on an inside surface and carefully matched and finished to hide it. Or another way would be a small gold wrist inlay. A shield, oval or the like with an engraved border wouldn't be out of character but not original of course. But then neither will the grip rail carving.
There's a few dents and dings to be fixed on the wood in other places as well.
The take down is interesting in that the forend is a semi-permanent attachment to the receiver by the hinge pin. When taken down, the barrel wedge is removed, action opened and barrel swings down, Then the barrel with the wedge removed is pushed/pulled to the rear slightly and up to clear the action. The forend remains attached to the action. I can see a few dents to the forend wood where attempts for pulling the forend off in the usual manner didn't work and then some failed force was used along the edges. I've seen a few other single shots with the same take down system.
