Just as a side note, "Coxer" might actually be "Coker". It caught my eye because my wife has some family with that name, albeit in North Carolina. Anyhow, I'm finding some obituaries and references online to a Robert Wesley Coker, Jr. that might be your guy. Not seeing a lot on him right away...
This is a particularly good deal for one of the military variants!
For what it's worth, the Cody Museum has the factory records and can confirm whether this is a French or a Portuguese contract gun:
https://centerofthewest.org/explore/firearms/firearms-records/
Whomever ends up with this, you can get it lettered by the Cody Firearms Museum. They've got the records from Savage, and they can confirm whether this was from the French or the Portuguese contracts.
For what it's worth, Forgotten Weapons had an interesting video a few years ago talking about the Carcanos' poor reputation in the US, and claiming that is largely due to some issues with the ammo we've had access to.
I'm hardly an expert on any of this. Most of my experience with the...
It's similar, but a different model. OP has a cavalry model that was made from the late 1800's up into the 30's. The JFK gun was a WWII era infantry rifle:
Do your due diligence, but people retaining their out of state cell phone number when they move isn't all that unusual these days. I've had the same Google Voice number that I've ported through to a number of different cell phones over the last 10-11 years. The area code is from the other...
I've only just barely dipped my toe in, in the most limited sense. Some of my wife's distant relatives ran a brewery in Missouri before Prohibition, and I've been trawling for artifacts ever since we discovered it last year. So far I've found a single bottle and a church key.
The serial number put its into the later part of December 1943.
They were serialized in batches of ten-thousand, with each manufacturer keeping their own count. When the first batch of the new year came out, there was no letter at the end (0001-9999). The second batch reset the count to...
I ordered three of them, and they're the real deal. One was an Inland, and I think the other two were a Standard Products and the other a Quality Hardware.
From what I understand, they didn’t make any domestically until the 1930’s. Over the years they had acquired a bunch of different styles, and then went on a modernization program. That’s when yours got worked over and had the new markings on the receiver put on. You’ll sometimes see...
Nice! Looks like you’ve got one of the older ones that was actually made in Germany. The date on the receiver isn’t the date that it was originally made, but the date that it was rearsenaled. There’s a bit of the history here: https://www.turkmauser.com/03/
You can look up the date from the serial number here: https://www.colt.com/serial-lookup
There’ll probably be a few hits due to duplicated serial numbers, but it’ll be obvious in context which is yours.
Just as a side note, they're in the middle of moving to a new location in Woodstock, and the old location in Marietta is closed. They haven't posted a date for their re-opening just yet.