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I guess there is always the exception...

I first bought my first M-S, a 1903 stutzen, a couple of years ago and came here to find out what I had. In addition to the great education I received on M-Ss in general and mine in particular, I found that mine was a 1939 build with a 'Made in Austria' stamped on the front receiver ring. The barrel is clearly marked '39', and the rifle seems to be original in every way. I suppose another barrel could have been put on the rifle, but the consensus here at that time was likely a rifle assembled in 1939 using an action completed before the Germans changed the stamping.

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I suppose I should have included an asterisk and some sort of disclaimer such as;
"There are few or no firm rules to dating Mannlicher Schoenauer rifles and stutzen. When you think you've found one, someone else will surely find the exception!"

It seems that much like Willys Overland, Kaiser, and AMC 'Jeep' production, whatever parts were in the bin on whatever given day were used as if to frustrate future cataloguers and historians.

The 'rules' are more like guidelines, it seems, never as easy as 'before serial number X it was like this and after serial number Y it's like that'. Such would just be too easy and the MS do have their mysteries.

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Citizen of the Cherokee Nation

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