I've lurked in the forums for a long time getting some pretty good advice so this is my first real post.

I just purchased an Underwood SN 2909xxx with a barrel date of 3-44 that appeared to be a non-rearsenaled gun. The barrel gauges at about a 1.5. After looking at production date ranges for Underwood, I estimate that the receiver was probably made in Feb 1944 considering that it was at the very end of the assigned serial number range (btw, I've seen conflicting info regarding production dates). So it appears that it has the original barrel. The bolt is an early flat version that is blued, the left lug as a tiny star stamp and WU is stamped below the lug.

It has the flip rear site with a ".U." mark and a type 1 band. The stock has a P-U mark in the sling cut along with a couple circular router marks. There isn't a P stamp on the grip which from what I understand would be correct for an Underwood stock. There are no arsenal stamps on the left side, and the right side has a GHD/UEF with crossed cannons in a box stamp on the right side. The front sight is marked EU which correct for Underwood, and the butt plate has a diagonal crosshatch which is also correct. The recoil plate is a type 3 that is correctly marked AU. It has the early safety button and the original magazine release button marked AU which is also Underwood. I didn't see a shadow from a Type 3 band being removed so it looked like I got something special.

So far so good, right? Now for the bad....

The front band is missing the sling swivel. The stamped trigger group has a .U. mark in the mag well so it's Underwood, but it's plumb colored which indicates that someone blued it at too low of a temperature. It has a unfinished hammer with a .U. mark, but the hammer spring has more than 22 coils so it looks like at least the trigger group and housing had been through a rebuild. I can live with all this: I'm looking for a shooter but a nice collectible gun would be nice too.

I have some questions about the authenticity of the arsenal stamp. It looks correct except it doesn't exactly match the stamp in a book attributed to Harrison. I've heard that his bookk had a lot of mistakes regarding stock stamps. The stamp on my stock is just like the picture except the cannonball touchs the cannons and the three-fingered flame is on top of the belt and not inside. Can anyone tell me what's correct for an Underwood stock?

The other issue that I came across last night when I was documenting the build is that the front site is installed backwards. The blueing in front of the sight doesn't look scratched up so I assumed that it hadn't been off the barrel. However, it obviously has been off which makes me wonder if someone has pimped it to make it appear original by replacing the barrel band, smoothing off an import mark under the barrel, and then touching up the bluing. I also was wondering about the gas slide. It is correctly marked with a OU on the inside bottom, but it also has an N stamped on the outside bottom. I've never seen an reference to an N stamp on a gas slide.

Now for the really bad. The gas piston assembly is cracked. I've seen various posts how this can be fixed. I did talk to my gunsmith, and he told me exactly how he fix it. Grind back the crack a bit to create some space. Put a mandrel in the gas piston opening for support. Squeeze it back to round. Add some small tack welds to hold it in place. Remove the mandrel and then finish the TIG weld. I imagine that the threads would need to be recut, but I see that there was actually an arsenal tool to do just that. What is the conventional widsom regarding making this welding repair or should I consider replacing the barrel? It looks like the CMPicon armorers can do that re-barrel job pretty reasonably.

The authenticity of being an original unaltered gun is probably gone at this point. I paid basically for a shooter that had the potential to be a collectible. Now the question becomes one of what to do now. The store where I bought it will let me return it for full credit or they will repair it for free. If I want to replace the barrel, I would probably have to do that on my own. I buy guns to keep; not to sell. I don't like the idea of passing down an altered gun that isn't what it appears to be to my son. I also don't like the idea of selling it to someone (with full disclosure) that might again try to resell to someone as "real".

I'll post pictures later this afternoon. Thanks in advance for any input into this. I've found these forums to be a great source of information!
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