I have a Remington 1917 with a row of 4 punch marks under the SN. What do they mean?

[BullDoug]

I have a Remington 1917 with a row of 4 punch marks under the SN. What do they mean? The rifle is in great condition with a nice bore and low TE/MW. I cant really see armory rebuilds as an answer since the punches are identical, so condemnation makes no sense to me, If armory rebuilds. who would have known how many prior rebuilds if punched all at once. Does anyone really know?

Regards to all,

BullDoug

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[paul-s]

This is just a guess, but perhaps they represent a metallurgy test that was done at some point either at the factory or at the armory.

Metal hardness can be tested by measuring the amount of force required to make a permanent mark in the surface. You start with what you know is more than enough force to leave an impression, then decrease it by a precise amount and try again until it no longer makes a mark. The test leaves a row of small punch marks in the surface.

Some Soviet handguns have marks like what you describe on their slides from such testing.

[Chuckindenver]

these punch marks are more common on 1903,s , i have seen another 17 with the same punch marks, likely and im guessing here,, headspace check. or bolt replacement.

[emmagee1917]

I have not seen those , but I would think the punch marks would become shallower with each test as preasure was decreased. That appears not to be the case here.
Chris

[mike16]

Are we talking about brinell or Rockwell Hardness testing? These dont look like that. and in actuality you put a hardened steel ball against the metal and press against that ball with a known weight and measure the distance across the indentation (diameter) and compare that distance to a series of known values and that will give you an indication of the hardness. It would not be nessessarry to do four tests so near each other in such a small area because one would usually give sufficient indication of hardness. Also from a cosmetic perspective one would be enough and often, even in military weapons the test is done in an area where other inspectror stamps are stamped. usually in an area where they canot be worn off or damaged during normal use so that in the future if it needs to be verified that the test was done during some recall as was the case with the notorious early o3's

Would somebody have centerpunched the reciever to drill holes for some sort of scope mount.