unusual trapdoor stock cartouches

[dacotah]

New member to this board.
I have a Bannerman built Trapdoor from new/old parts. Built with an 18886 Experimental Trapdoor Carbine stock with a standard 22" Carbine barrel
SN 155692. It has 2 unusual stock cartouches. Hoping someone can tell what they signify, if anything.

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[Dick Hosmer]

I have not seen either - and they look AWFULLY fresh to be Bannerman (his stuff is now almost as old as the originals)! How about an overall view?

[dacotah]

The whole carbine is quite "fresh" unusually nice condition).
I said Bannerman because the tag on it when I got it reads "1890's - 1900's Bannerman Company Rebuild"

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[dacotah]

Retook pictures on a neutral background.

[No1_49er]

The image which only shows the cartouche suggests that there is a problem.
It appears that the cartouche has been applied after the wood has been treated with some type of surface treatment - the die has broken through and shows rough edges of that treatment.
Just an observation.

[John S.]

Stock contours appear (to me anyway) to be somewhat "off" in minor ways, and overall stock condition is much better than I would expect, so I think the stock is a repro of some sort.

The "horse head" stamping is nothing I have ever seen on a military weapon, but I bet that it is a stamp which is readily available for leather workers. The three letter cartouche (not sure what the letters are) also looks "of" to me.

Someone here is piecing together a "filler" example of a scarce trapdoor model. I suspect that this gun is a similar effort from another time and another place. I doubt if Bannerman was involved.

[Dick Hosmer]

"Someone"? I believe I resemble that remark!

The 1883 plate screams Bannerman, the hammer screw is from a .50-70, and, the trigger is wrong, and not hard to get right so why? The stock DOES look funky - and, since you cannot make an XC stock from any other TD stock, I'd guess it to be hand-carved from a blank. Boggles the mind that someone would go to that amount of trouble and then not use the correct length barrel! Hand-carving would explain the "close but definitely incorrect" wrist and tip shapes, for example. The cartouches are a joke - IMHO, the piece would far better off without them. Is the rear sight marked "XC"?

Update: Looking at the overall shot, I was thinking the length actually didn't look that far off, which made me wonder how the barrel had been measured, but then I looked at my real XC, and the proportions ARE different, i.e. that IS a full-stocked 22" carbine, but from whence and why it came, who knows.

Yes, my XC does have a nasty chip out of the stock on the front side. Maybe I should put that on my project list?

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[dacotah]

Yes, the lettered cartouche was put on after the wood had been finished. The horse cartouche appears to have been applied before the finish.
The sight is not marked "XC". It is Marked "C". The barrel does measure 22 inches.

Thanks to all for taking a look.

[Dick Hosmer]

You're welcome. Stuff like this keeps it interesting. While I found nothing on that exact number, the two closest were both rifles. But, there were some carbines sprinkled in that general area as well. Sadly, we'll never know how much of it is real and how much is Memorex. Both Bubba and Bannerman were apparently involved, though.