I have a letter on a nice 1899 CD and it has on the last line of the information A3. Anyone know what that stands for? They also did not give me the caliber of the rifle which was 303 Savage. Very little info. for 75 bucks. I hope that A3 stands for something good. I sent a message to Cody asking for help, but at my age I won't be around by the time they get back to me.
Bill W
So the rifle wasn't recorded as an 1899CD, it was recorded as an 1899A with A3 checkering. Your rifle should have a pistol grip if it's an 1899CD, but the letter doesn't mention that or a p/g entry? What's the date on your rifle?
An 1899CD is just a regular rifle with A3 checkering and pistol grip. Before they catalogued the 1899CD, they offered those options as well. So your rifle might date to before the 1899CD was catalogued (around SN 44.000 or so), or the person recording it in the ledger just recorded the features rather than the grade. It's like recording "6 eggs" versus "half a dozen eggs" - different ways of recording the same thing.
I have an A2 special from 1914 or so that wasn't recorded as an A2 special, recorded just as an 1899C with a work order number.
No entry for caliber means it was in 303 Savage - early ledgers only recorded other calibers.
Same for 26" barrel - not recorded, they only recorded other lengths.
So essentially your entry should have had the following data in it:
*) A3 (for A3 checkering, there was no A3 engraving)
*) R (for round barrel)
*) Accepted from factory date
*) Shipped date
*) Who it was shipped to
No mention of caliber means it was 303 Savage, no mention of barrel length means it was 26".