Nick Rosselli bought a lot of stuff from Savage back then, R&D guns, mistakes and miss marked guns. I bought some guns from him, as did my brother and my dad. Back then a lot of stuff was "custom" made for employees, special bbl lengths, ect. The head of R&D back then was a man named Bob Greenleaf. Brillant. He's in his 90's now, and he's a Pearl Harbor Navy vet. He was in machinegun school then, and he and the Marine instructors were among the first to shoot back at the Jap planes. Excuse me if this is old news.
Someone mentioned Pete Dowd, when I was a sales rep for Camfour Pete owned a shop called "The Gun Room" in Shrewsbury, Ma. I called on his shop weekly, and he was always honest and up front. I have no reason to think he would be any other way on line. Just my experience.