Meaning of the "R" Archived Message
Posted by Jim Stubbendieck on January 24, 2017, 12:00 pm, in reply to "Re: Recently purchase O grade 16 gauge 1912. got a couple of questions"
The"R" prefix indicates a shotgun with a regular-weight frame as opposed to a "Fw" meaning a feather-weight frame. Use of the prefix was only applied to the post-1913 shotguns. The "R" suffix was used at about the time of the Curtis forend release, but it is not associated with that feature. Many with the "R" do not have this release. Instead, it appears that for a few years the Hunter Arms Company used the "R" suffix to designate shotguns with shell extractors while continuing to use "E" to designate those with automatic ejectors. At some point, they decided to drop the "R" and to continue with the "E". The "R" was somewhat redundant because the shotguns either had automatic ejectors or they did not. When I have a chance, I will go into the records and determine when the use of the "R" was started and when it ended.
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