Just acquired a 1899A in 303 Savage that came with letter. Ser 33,63x accepted to warehouse May 28, 1902 and shipped Oct 18, 1902 to Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co., Chicago. Wood in great condition. Receiver metal shows lot of carry wear. Butt plate polished to white metal. 26" barrel with unbelievable good rifling. All parts numbered to gun. Unfortunately drilled and tapped. And drilled and tapped slightly off center... I had to file one side of scope mount to get scope lined up enough for scope to be zeroed in. Shoots really good and will be my 2019 deer gun. I bought it to kill deer with and I really like having a scope. (I would have bought it without the extra holes too!!!)
There was hand written note from JTC attached, "The stamp is correct. Roll stamps changed very often." Not sure what/why question the previous owner asked about barrel stamping as it looks same as in David's book?

Thanks, every little bit of info helps! That fits right into the 1902 serial numbers that I have.

I like shooting those 26" barreled guns. They balance well for me.

There were several variations of the barrel addresses between 1899 and 1904. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get photos of all of them for the book. David