Posted by SGT on August 24, 2007, 2:31 pm, in reply to "Re: Cody letter"
Dan: Jessica is one of the most helpful folks you will ever meet, and we LC guys are fortunate indeed that she continues to patiently tolerate all the aggravation we cause her. Obviously, inspector "P" (whom my information identifies as R. W. Mack) got in a hurry while entering a batch of Ideal grades and inadverdantly noted your Trap as an Ideal; a simple human error, nothing more and nothing less (it is actually possible that folks made mistakes in 1913 just like they continue to in 2007?). Photos of your gun clearly shows all the correct stamps and markings placed on the typical Trap grade gun (no overstamps or altered stamps); so your gun, from the beginning, was always a Trap Grade. As to your reference "transition", as regards the two-piece top strap on regular framed guns, the actual "transition", or manufacturing change, to the one-peice top strap took place long after 1913 (probably by 1917 and certainly by the end of WWI); so that feature was still standard production when your gun shipped.