Numbered Longbranch Magazines?

[krinko]

Of the eight LBs hanging around the place at the moment, only two have numbered LB magazines. The '50, '45, '44 and most of the '43s have unnumbered magazines and aside from this 3L/'42 and one '43, of 22L vintage, the forestocks aren't numbered, either.
Here are photos of the two "numbered magazine" rifles, see if you think these numbers were put on at manufacture.

The 3L is the best candidate for factory applied numbers, although the fonts do not match from buttsocket to case. The first rifle, with the "L" left out on the magazine serial, almost certainly wasn't done at the factory.
If people can come up with more 1942-ish LBs having magazine serial numbers that match the 3L's font, maybe we can find an early practice that was discontinued---like the forestock numbering.
If the fonts are all different, orientation is different---ad infinitum, it's going to be a pretty fair bet the magazines weren't numbered by the ladies at the factory. Heh?
-----krinko

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