The new constitution of 1993 decreed that ALL guns now belong to the state alone and only the state can sell ammo and grant permission to use a firearm. A law was quickly passed obliging everyone to register their firearms and granting a short amnesty period in which one could pretty much bring anything in and they'd put it in the system. The problem was - there was a vast void of knowledge about the diverse brands, models and configurations of firearms and I know of one case in particular in which a Marlin Model 39 is stamped Remington and the owner has papers on it in that brand name - because "There's no such brand as Marlin"...as the original registerer was told when taking in the rifle to get it papered. Pre-internet. Pre-computer. You were left with the luck of the draw as far as whatever "expert" happened to be assigned to the Army post where you were attempting to comply with the law.

A bit of conjecture - it may be that the good Colonel, or whoever originally registered the rifle, was confronted by someone who had never heard of "X" (whatever brand the rifle orginaly was) and so they had it stamped Marlin and registered as such. He states it was a tube-fed bolt action holding 9 shots, which I've never heard of in a Marlin but my experience is quite limited due to life circumstances. I didn't get to handle the rifle in question so didn't see the Marlin stamp on it, much less get a picture of it. The Remington stamp on the Marlin 39 I saw years ago looked reasonably "authentic", not a matter of individual letter stamps being used but of a high quality die stamp that had everything lined up and looking good.

If I ever meet up with the Colonel and his rifle again I'll see if I can get a chance to coon finger it a bit and see what other details I can pick up.

I dearly wanted to see it out of its stock to get an idea of how they grafted a competition trigger onto a sporter receiver. Well, starting out with a competition receiver greatly simplifies that issue! There's a lot of ???, but it's really none of my business, just a big curiosity about all things BANGSTICK that torments me. I remember digging through the junk pile at my gunsmith's place way out in the sertão and wondering about the history of some of the relics quietly rusting into oblivion. There was everything from old muzzle loaders to some fine european shotgun and other sporting type stuff, as well as one Mauser bolt action that was from an era of greater political unrest.

Anyway, his was the only "custom" rifle on the line. Everyone else was shooting pretty much stock factory offerings, hence my fascination with it.