I finally got to take possession of my Swissicon rifles (the 10-day "cooling-off" period ended) and I had a chance to give them all a good going over



I noticed that this one had a "P 59" stamp under the serial number



I believe that this means that the rifle was turned over to the individual by the Swiss government in 1959. That made me wonder what "mustering out" process was generally used when a rifle was turned over to the individual soldier as private property? Was the rifle given a good going over to ensure that it was in good shape? Was it simply stamped "P" and taken off the property records?

Were (and are) there private gunsmiths who specialized in working on these rifles after they left government ownership? Seems like a great retirement job for military armorers.