Neal: Thanks for your comments- pretty much sums up everything I was wondering about. I've gone over the stock very carefully and see no evidence of a rebuild stamp on the stock and there is only a single proof stamp on the grip. Due to the parkerized bolt assembly it's clearly been rebuilt but that appears to be as much as can be said about the history. I am curious now about why the originals had the bolt blued. As everyone knows the a3 bolt is pretty crude and bluing would seem to be a strange finish for it. In a recent "Guns & Ammo" Surplus Firearms mag a Mr. Hacker states that early a3's "were parkerized with a dark finish, although toward the end of '43 the parkerizing was changed to a light grey-green shade, which can also be found on arsenal repaired examples". As I mentioned there are spots on the bolt handle where an earlier dark finish is apparent and it's not bluing. I'm led to wonder if the parkerizing wears off rapidly on a bolt leading to the re-parking of the bolt on a very little used gun. I guess I'll see how rapidly the green stuff wears off as I use this rifle at the range.
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