WildCard1791
Copper BB
Hi y'all,
Last year I made my first gun purchase, it was this old 183D on consignment. At any rate, since it had some serious damage to the stock and had been modified already, I decided to go ahead and tinker around with the old girl to learn more about what makes a bolt gun tick.
Just a few days ago, I noticed for the first time that the trigger guard says, "REG. IN CANADA 1938", and that got me thinking. I'd already seen that 183's were introduced in 1947, nine years later than the date. (Wikipedia notes that left-hand extractors were added in 1948; mine only has one extractor on the right side, so I'm fairly sure it's a '47 model.)
Did any other Mossberg firearms from the 30's and 40's share the same plastic trigger guard? If so, I figure it might have just been replaced at some point. Another theory I've got is that it might have really been Canadian registered (there's a strange serial number engraved at the base of the stock: 3334893) and Mossberg might have been using the same trigger guard pattern since 1938 and just slapped them on their new firearms.
Thoughts? (Pics won't upload yet, I'm working on it.)
Last year I made my first gun purchase, it was this old 183D on consignment. At any rate, since it had some serious damage to the stock and had been modified already, I decided to go ahead and tinker around with the old girl to learn more about what makes a bolt gun tick.
Just a few days ago, I noticed for the first time that the trigger guard says, "REG. IN CANADA 1938", and that got me thinking. I'd already seen that 183's were introduced in 1947, nine years later than the date. (Wikipedia notes that left-hand extractors were added in 1948; mine only has one extractor on the right side, so I'm fairly sure it's a '47 model.)
Did any other Mossberg firearms from the 30's and 40's share the same plastic trigger guard? If so, I figure it might have just been replaced at some point. Another theory I've got is that it might have really been Canadian registered (there's a strange serial number engraved at the base of the stock: 3334893) and Mossberg might have been using the same trigger guard pattern since 1938 and just slapped them on their new firearms.
Thoughts? (Pics won't upload yet, I'm working on it.)