question on the morphy gun, what is the #731 on the action flats? sn is visible and stated as 60782...
second more general question re: ideals...when did the change occur in the lugs and floorplate? this gun has both lugs flush with floorplate, my late 30's gun and the subject gun in this thread have the lugs recessed and not protruding through the floorplate. i have never seen any time period reference to establish a judgement upon - have wondered if the change was concurrent with the model numbering changes in the early 30's.
the morphy gun is listed as 1935, but that disagrees with two things i believe to be correct; the 5S style model numbers were replaced in 1932 (?) with the later three digit type, and argo provided a listing of ideal serial numbers in august 2018 that clearly shows 1928 as the correct year of production.
tom
IMHO you are correct in noting that this gun is from the 1920's and for the reasons you stated.
Re the floor plate. The solid floorplate is typically added to guns of a higher grade and/or ejector guns of any grade. I have looked at 100's of Ideals in the last 10 years. I have never seen an ejector gun, typically about 10% of what comes up for sale in France, that does not have the solid floor plate.
Extractor guns usually, but not exclusively, have the through lumps. That's probably because higher grade guns were typically ordered with ejectors. But, as Gil's gun shows, there are a few extractor guns floating around with the solid floor plate. Not actually solid, just really finely fitted pieces filling the holes. Seams often disguised by engraving.
Going to dig out my Mournatas book tomorrow and see what he says about the dispersal barrels.
