Quote Originally Posted by Rick Bicon View Post
As for pad length time frame. It clearly did not make it to the 1.2 million period. I would say it dropped off more in the 123,000 range if even that late but I may be way off base so maybe Bodyman can give more details on this. Rick B
Rick, Here is the information I have in my notes after talking to a couple of knowledgable collectors and gathering what info I could from discussions on the forums. Early WRA barrels, up to about serial #125000, were consistant in that they all had long pads and the drawing number was readable from the op rod side. After that they still had long pads up to the early 1.2 mil rifles, but the drawing number could either be op rod side or clip latch side. The short pad barrels started showing up in the early 1.2 mil series, but an occasional long pad barrel could still be found clear up into the 2 mil series with the drawing number still being randomly stamped. I don't know if this is totally correct information or whether anyone really knows for sure since there have not been a whole lot of original Winchesters found. If anyone else has any info I hope they will join in.