I think it's definitely short grain chunk at the head which sheered off and was lost and then replaced with carefully selected non-matching. Heck, John, you could glaze and faux grain that in about ten seconds if the glue line's nice and skinny. Take me longer by ten minutes. I don't think a bitty chunk of wood would be a deal-breaker for me unless the lack of full bearing at the frame shoulder means there's going to be similar in the future. It's not collector "quality" so you've got some leeway to do what you want. Good bores/good lockup/stock that more or less is right on the comb means good gun to me.
jack
