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Hi folks: old member, re-activated account. Watched this bid up and close online today. I have never seen one in person. This needs to be a magazine article in Man at Arms or American Rifleman! To be honest I think it went cheap because the auctioneer isn’t well known, and its existence is only anecdotal? Bolt appears to blow back and angle down, so there is a spring in that butt. No published photos or online mention that I can find. It could be 1918 experimental, post-war experimental, or 1930s experimental? Too much modification to be very practical for general use. Probably a one off? Clearly purpose made and not a conversion by someone. Someone on the auction floor bought it according to the feed; only two bidders that I could see above 9k beans. Good news is I won the auction before it for what I believe to be an all correct 1917 date 1903 from the same pre-1964 collection.
