pickax, thank you for the kind words sir.

It's one that literally could go either way. It certainly has Marine traits and is a great serial range for being Marine, the finish even looks like an early Marine rebuild.

On this one it's hard to say for sure, because as you said, stuff has been changed on it. And it always makes it hard to say for certain when that happens. Sometimes when you find these with an earlier barrel pre WWII and they are Marine, they have the numbered front sight on them. But not always. The MArines switched to the #6 drift in 1936, which this one has, but the Army used #6's as well.

Even thought I think a lot has been changed on it, I do imagine the chances are more likely that it was Marine at one time. But it would be nice to see something more concrete on it before you say 100%.

But thank you again for the kind words sir. There is always something to learn and at times you feel like a novice with the amount of research still that needs to be conducted at the archives.