Last Government Made '03 barrels

[Cosine26]

Rick
At one time the US FY started on July 1. At one point, 1976, this was changed to start the FY on 1 October. The avowed purpose was to allow the POTUS and congress to prepare and pass a budget on time. That is working well today? I was working for the government at the time and we had to add a "T Quarter" that covered the period form 1 July to 1 October. I believe that M1903 barrels were marked with the calander year. A barrel manufactured in August 1945 would have been documented as part of the FY 46 FY buy, but the barrel would have been marked 8-45.

[Rick the Librarian]

I'm aware of that - however, if the last observed barrels are 11-44 (which I am in agreement), how come barrels were mentioned as having been completed in FY 1946 - which would mean at least 1945-marked barrels?

[Cosine26]

That I cannot answer. I have never seen any SA "45" barrels.

[Rick the Librarian]

I've been told that some of the data contained in the ordnance reports was sometimes "wish for" or "estimated" and I wonder if this is a case of that?

[louis]

I'll add my 2 cents in this with another similar scenario that I'm familiar with. When WW2 ended Chance Vought and Goodyear manufacturing the F4U Corsair were told to scrap all new aircraft on the assembly line and the completed ones waiting for delivery. They were paid in full for the contracts even though they weren't accepted by the military. Could be this was the same as the barrels.

[John Beard]

Interesting that quite a few barrels were listed as completed in FY 1946, when (if you go by the date stamped on the barrels) they were not. Any idea why? Maybe ordered but not completed?

The SA annual reports are not without error. I've found errors in them, usually none serious. The reports were a financial document, not a production accounting document.

One possible explanation is that some of the 1944 barrels were marked and dated, but were not finished out until FY1946, perhaps because production priorities had shifted. Forget not that the M1 rifle was much higher priority.

J.B.