The sleeving appears to have been very neatly done, but from the excellent photographs the very tiny marks across the line of the barrels indicate that, as is usual, the original barrels were cut off about 1/4 inch in front of the barrel flats.
If that is so the pre-1954 13 and 13/1 marking cannot be remnants of the proof marks originally applied to this gun.
It seems to me that there are 2 possibilities:-
1. When it was sleeved in 1988 the sleever used tubes that had been provisionally proofed as tubes before 1954 but never fitted to a complete gun, or
2. That he dismantled a pair of orphaned barrels, proofed before 1954, turning the breech ends down to use as sleeving tubes.
I THINK I GOT THIS WRONG - please see my later post
Last edited by Parabola; 05/20/25 05:02 PM.
