I am researching the "fused MP" stamp as seen in the picture below. The picture is of an Ithaca Flues, manufactured about 1924 as per serial number lookup from the DiamondGunSmithing.com web site. The right leg of the "M" is also the leg of the "P".
- Has anybody seen this stamp before, on Flues or other shotguns?
- Can we get anybody with a Flues in the 390,000 range to check for the stamp? Just to pick a range, from 370,000 to ~399,000?
- Does anyone have a factory letter on any shotgun with the MP stamp?
The story goes that the stamp signifies it was property of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), or "MP" for short. The RCMP museum historian noted in his book that many firearms and other equipment such as saddles and holsters were stamped as being property of the RCMP. The stamping practice was started in the mid-1930s, which does not correlate to when these guns were stamped.
The historian's book has a picture of a Colt revolver with the stamp under the grips. Members at the Savage Collector's forum are finding rifles with a smaller version of the same stamp, (on bottom of barrel at receiver.) All the stamped rifles were manufactured in the early 1927 time period, and nearly every rifle examined in that period is so stamped. They could not all have gone to the RCMP. There are many other questions about the stamps that are not answered by merely declaring them to have been property of the RCMP at some point.
I'm not trying to discredit the historian, argue for one position or another, or even explain why the stamp. At this point, I am only trying to gather more info on timeframes and gun types that may have been stamped. This is info that was not available to the historian.
Any comments or data are appreciated. Thank you for your help. (If this is a repeat of previous posts, well, I tried many forum queries, and found nothing related.)
