1903 headless cocking piece

[RCS]

Many years ago I purchased s/n 1373022 which has a star gaged SA 7-29 bbl, John Beard was able to tell me by the steel lot code that this was a Rock island barrel blank that was sent to SA during the 1920's where it was made into a NM barrel. Also he said it was a 1931 NM rifle but never sold.

When I bought this rifle it came with two NS bolts and one of the bolts has the headless cocking piece with the reverse safety. Can anyone tell by the enclosed photos if this bolt
with the headless cocking piece is original or was it made-up ?

Thanks Robert

[chuckindenver]

hard to tell from the pictures...most headless cocking rods had reverse safeties as well

[Cosine26]

The headless cocking piece pictured does have reverse safety

[John Beard]

The headless cocking piece looks authentic. But distinguishing a real one from a good quality reproduction is tricky at best. So my assessment is by no means conclusive.

Hope this helps.

J.B.

[Cosine26]

I have fabricated headless cocking pieces but could not duplicate the reverse safety. My retired M1903 has a headless cocking piece with a standard safety. The intent was to speed up lock time ,not to try to match the real HCP for collector purposes. I was using the rifles in competition.