Quote Originally Posted by muffett.2008 View Post
If this was a spare '44 manufactured action, it would not have a S/N until mated with a barrel, there have been a couple of rifles posted either here or on Gunboards that had no prefix when they should.
The question is, if this action was assembled post 1945 as a complete rifle, who would make the decission as to what prefix, if any would be assigned?
If we tried to use a 1944 prefix, they were all issued, we could use F, or leave it blank, I recall something about a set allocation of numbers for new replacement receivers, clarification anyone?
Muffer my suggestion is that the rifle underwent two major rebuilds. The first when the action was replaced, say in 1944 when it was probably mated to the original barrel serial numbered 36662 and then the second, an FTR in 1951 when the new barrel was fitted to it and numbered to the action.