Unusual 1903 Butt Plate Marking

[rcmkhm]

I'm attaching a couple of photos of an unusual metal tab that is affixed over the original butt plate tang on an early Springfield 1903 (it's a 150,000 range '03 with SA 05 altered barrel). The tab has a "1" above the screw hole and "54" below it and it uses the same screw hole as the regular butt plate and the piece of metal is cut to the same dimensions as the tang. Has anyone ever seen one of these before? Thanks, Chip

[TDP0311]

Rick the Librarian posted a picture of something similar, and they were markings used by the Cavalry.

[Rick the Librarian]

It wasn't me. I haven't seen anything exactly like this - it appears to be the tang from another buttplate. Maybe JB has a comment.

[RCS]

early buttplate tang markings

This stock came from a rifle sold by the CMP a few years ago, Rick Borecky has sent it to me.

This early SA stock had the buttplate tang markings which Ed Byrns was able to decipher for me: Troop H 8th Cavalery Trooper #18 (note Troop H was in Mexico in 1916 with Lt G. Patton)

[rcmkhm]

It doesn't appear to be the tang from another butt plate because it is much thinner, although it could have been ground down.

[RCS]

tang marking

I think you have a I.D. type of metal tab attached by the tang screw. You do not find many 1903 buttplates with I.D. markings (at least I have not) It would appear that the army was a little fussy about marking the I.D. of rifles while the navy did a lot of wood markings and white paint on their butt stocks.

The British used the top tang of there buttplates for I.D. markings until the Lee Enfield Mark 1 series which used the stock disc for I.D., even rifles upgraded to Mark 1 still had the old tang markings with different units being lined-out as the rifle was assigned to another unit