Possible NM rifle? Any way to verify?

[browningautorifle]

pitted below the woodline

Some that came back from the Philippine returns and RVN were like that as they were SO wet and the wood soaked and rotten...they had rusted from end to end. They would be stripped and refinished or scrapped. Parts would be added...see?

Information

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[jond41403]

Some that came back from the Philippine returns and RVN were like that as they were SO wet and the wood soaked and rotten...they had rusted from end to end. They would be stripped and refinished or scrapped. Parts would be added...see?

Thanks BAR, that makes perfect sense. I could see how the wood would hold the moisture and leave the top drier above the line. Sorry for the newbie type question,I was not thinking of the countless number of countries that stored them in different various conditions.

[Bob Seijas]

Could be a Greek return, they took the NM sights off the ones we gave them and used them as regular line rifles. Parts got scrambled just like all the Greek guns. There is no way I know of the prove it was a NM.

[Bob Seijas]

The police sales guns that came back from Honduras and Guatemala in the 1980s were just the opposite: some outside rust but like new below the wood and inside.

[browningautorifle]

There was a huge shipment of shotguns was found in RVN back then and it included everything you could name in US shotguns with everything from as new to complete junk... I wasn't quick enough to grab even one.

[4ds4me]

Thank You all for the responses, It is what it is at this point. I purchased this rifle as a project for Grand Son #2 due in Feb 2020. I will work it up into a nice reliable shooter, ditch the hackberry stock and he will get it when he is of age.

Greg

[browningautorifle]

Will make a nice shooter...