Hi Patrick! Thanks for the information and your feedback which makes a lot of sense. However, I have to admit that I remain skeptical - The only true commonality I see is the long stamped serial number - none of the other marks are the same at all - do these guns have a Japanese maker's name such as Kasuga on it? There are also considerable mechanical differences if you care to examine closely in the action such as the double screw in the center of top lever and the off set screw on the tang among many others differences - I also feel that there is a significant difference in the quality of the wood, and overall refinement / wood to metal fit /and attention to detail. ( I hope I am not biased in this statement).
Thanks