Quote Originally Posted by Roger Payneicon View Post
My view has changed a little from viewing the better photo's & from studying the serial numbers on the rifle receiver ring & on the scope rings. To me, they both look genuine & unmessedabout with. It is hard to reconcile this rifle as an out & out fake if these numbers are indeed unaltered.
Roger, it seems we were talking of different things. I did not want to claim the base as being not original. What I pointed out though was the fact that a stamp may bounce, but someone who does this on a daily bases will not get the stamp to bounce 6 times in a row. Combine this with a scope base that carries what appears to be non original finish (cold blue?) it may be a mixture of original parts, but refinished and force matched to the rifle in question.

This however still puts the outcome at what I had already said: at best a restored original, at worst a fake with some better and some worse parts. And at least to me neither of the two are worth the estimate. To someone else it might be, the question though remains if this person has the information available in this thread, and if yes, if he considers it the same way as I do.