In the topic on the burned out Rough Rider carbine, mention was made of an 1894-dated rifle (or action) with the SN 404. That jogged my memory.
Back about 1999, a close friend, retired USN Chief Machinist Mate, acquired a much cut up 1892 rifle with a SN in the low 400 range, maybe 404. I tried to talk him into restoring it as much as possible. Instead, he sawed & sanded the stock, then rebarreled the thing in .35 Remington. Surprisingly, the conversion worked. Dummy .35 Remington cartridges with round nosed bullets actually fed out of the magazine.
My friend died late in 2002. I bought the rifle from his widow. Never did anything with it. About 2005, I got tired of it and sold it at a gun show. Have not seen it since. It's out there somewhere.
SN 404?
Re: SN 404?
Did he actually do any shooting with it? Seems that feeding would not be too much of a problem. I would see extraction of fired cases the obstacle to overcome. If he did any regular shooting or hunting, then he did figure that problem out.
Re: SN 404?
I don't think he ever fired it, maybe not even a test round. I never fired it either. He was a good machinist, had the ability to modify the extractor to work with the smaller rimless case head. Got sick right after he completed this one. Never really had the energy to go back to the shop for hours on end.