Beautiful rifle & pictures. Love the conversion to short action.
I notice the Bbl and the action both carry a Winchester 'Postal' proof mark 'P in an Oval' indicating a separate part sold unfitted from the Service/Repair Dept if I understand it right,,and a factory finished firearm proof mark,,the standard WP in an oval.
I don't think I've ever seen that before nor can I think of why both would be there unless the customer purchased parts (bbl and rcv'r) went back to factory once assembled for some sort of work that then required a (re)proof.
Maybe that was the welding work some have said might have been done at the Winchester factory?
Just speculating of course, but the duel proofs on both the bbl and rcv'r caught my attention.
The bbl date on the bottom of the bbl is year the bbl itself was made, (19)42.
Very interesting post and back story.
Thank You!
