Page 3-84 of the Third Edition of Murray's has an "incomplete" chart of buttplate markings. It shows the Indian in an oval marking primarily from 1914 through 1928. During this time all the Model 99s with shotgun butts had a buttplate with what I will call a continuous curve. Sometime around 1930 the buttplate was changed to have a "reverse curve" at the toe and heel. This change is not referenced in David's, Rory's, or Murray's books. The chart also shows the SVG mark in a circle starting in 1926 and continuing until WWII. Thus it would appear that "continuous curve" buttplates are found with both markings for a few years.
I have a continuous curve G with the oval marking - #3078XX (1928); a continuous curve F with the SVG marking - #3236XX (1929); and a reverse curve G with the SVG marking - #3360XX (1931). So three different buttplate types in a relatively small serial number range. All of the other pre-WWII rifles I have with serial numbers higher than 3360XX have reverse curve buttplates with the SVG marking.
So, some questions:
Does anyone have any idea of the distribution of the two different markings during the 1926-1928 years? In other words, is one significantly more rare than the other?
Do we know how sharp a cut off there was between the continuous curve and reverse curve buttplates?
And, a somewhat related, but different topic - The first column of Murray's chart shows a round marking with "TRADE" above, and "MARK" below. This is the marking found on the hard rubber buttplates, but Murray's chart also shows it in 1923 and 1924 when no rifles were cataloged with hard rubber buttplates. Is this mark found on some steel buttplates?
