The model 400 was made from approximately 1900 to 1946. W&S made a shit load of 400’s in every gauge and in few different grades.
The 700 was produced post WW2, with production starting around 1947.
I’d venture to say that there were more 400’s produced for the trade than there were 700’s….by the time the 7 hundy came along, the trade was really starting on its downward slide.
I guess the answer to your question Ted is not many people have run into catastrophic problems with their guns and for the most part, probably don’t feel the need to carry spare parts and special tools with them. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of shooters of vintage guns arent as diligent as you are in making sure they’re prepared for a failure in the field by stocking up on fitted pins, springs and tooling. You’re a well prepared guy, pretty mechanically inclined, where a good many vintage shotgun shooters are not.
The only time I see gunsmiths messing with the disc is during complete strip and cleans and or repairing a wonky striker. I see alot of strip and cleans….and that’s where I see the problems with removing the disk. More often than not…a tool must be made and fitted to the disk for proper removal. There is no one tool fits all for those things.
I think W&S figured that there was no longer a reason to incorporate disk set strikers in their actions because they weren’t worried about integral strikers breaking very much at all, which they don’t. That was probably a pretty good cost saving feature eliminating the extra machining and fitting of those disk.
Same with the screw grip extension. Over 50+ years of making them…they probably figured that the screw grip didn’t add much of anything to the function or strength of the gun and therefore eliminated that feature as well, thus reducing cost of the action again.
