Kathy1 A nice Island locks back action version with a re-proof at .740 things cant get any better. The 81 and 16 stamps on the barrels a consensus of opinion on this it is some form of barrel makers identification because there where four guns ordered in this set so it could stand to reason that some form of identification may have been needed for the number of tubes or completed barrels. Though I am always open to suggestions to some other reason for these numbers, I would dearly like to find another gun from this set made for Henry Chaplin just to compare but I have never found another owner to date.
The only reason I ask, is that I have a Birmingham gun that has 80 25 stamped on each sides of the action flats (80 on one and 25 on the other side) I assumed it was done at proof as the gun was reproofed and left little to no room for any other stampings.
