My Model 45 44 in .28-30 came in Thursday. 7 o'clock extractor. Logo on the barrel has the x's on each end. Has #1 barrel. I was comparing it to my Model 45 44 in .25-25. It also has the x's on the barrel but has the 6 o'clock extractor. According to Bill Best's book the x's ended in 1902 along with the 7 o'clock extractor. I am assuming that there was some overlap in 1902 with the barrel markings and extractor location. The .25-25 has the standard #2 barrel. It also has a #3 Swiss Buttplate with a larger slightly larger stock. According to the catalog's of the day, if you ordered a 45 with the #3 barrel, you got the larger buttplate and stock. I am assuming that mine was ordered that way since the serial #'s match on the barrel and the frame and it has the #2 barrel rather than the #3.  Sometimes hard to figure out what they did. I have a 44 1/2 barrel in .44-40 that is marked #2 and is obviously a #3. Interesting to try to figure it out 100 years later.

We have touched base before. I have several 44's and am willing to share info for the cause. What do you need from each gun other than serial #, X's or not, 6 or 7 o'clock extractor? May take me a while to get it all together. Are you interested in all 44 variations up to the 417's? Yes this is fun for me. Love the odd stuff and love a puzzle. One of my other hobbies is a '57 T-Bird with the factory dual quad set up that I am re doing for the 3rd time since I bought it in 1965. Also a fun project if I do not weaken.

That agrees with the catalog. #3 barrel got the larger buttplate. Why did you throw the barrel away? Bad bore? Today I would reline it.

Don't Beat yourself up over it.  Everyone seems to have Great "Hindsight" but the same people are quiet about their own "Foresight".

Of course it would be nice if your 'trash can of the era was still around to allow 'fishing' the discarded barrel back out, but by now it is either in a Land Fill or has been recycled as Scrap metal.

Last Month I "passed on" a batch of 'old Electronics' to someone who wanted them for a Computer Museum, a Intel 8008 Based General purpose computer, an Altair "S100" bus computer chassis and 8080 MPU card, a pair of Exidy Sorcerer computers.  Sugart 8-1/4" Floppy disk Drives and disks, Micropolis 5-1/4" External Hard Disk drive, Etc., Etc.  These date from the late 1960s, the 1970s and 1980s, before Microsoft and the IBM PC came out.  CP/M, TinyBasic, and Machine Language Programming information and aids went with them.  I also had a full set of IBM Factory Technical manuals covering the IBM AT computer and Circuit Cards that went to the Museum.

To date myself, I learned Electronics on Tube circuits, and later transitioned to Semiconductors and even later to Integrated Circuits so I had 'pack ratted' my old projects in storage space.  4' x4' x 8' of space was emptied for a Good Cause.

Best Regards,
Chev. William

While I have thrown away a few precious bits, I still have about 30 motorcycles (if you count the "projects") and a solid-full semi-load of parts, tools, fairings, fairing molds, tires, wheels, etc. that I wish I had also binned, now.   Millstone around my neck, since I don't do motorcycles anymore.    Anybody need a short dozen Bultacos in various states of (dis)assembly?

Don't play with them modern  bikes.  Sorry Joe.

47427 No. 2 Barrel .25-20 SS No Xs 6 O'Clock extractor

Mike, I've sent you a P/M.

Phil W.