Originally Posted by
cplnorton
I will have to check out Senich's book tomorrow when I have time. I haven't picked that one up in a long time either. But is Senich saying the A5 cases are referenced in the Nov 1918 Handbook of Ordnance? I have that Ordnance book and I'm pretty sure nothing is mentioned in there on the actual cases. It does have a little bit of info on the 1st Contract 500 order by WRA, but that is only about a paragraph. But I will get that one back out and look again, but I really don't think there was anything on cases in there.
On the Lyman 5A. Yeah Senich's book says that got some of the Lyman 5A scopes. Which those weren't made till like 1928/29, when Lyman bought out the WRA A5 design. But I think he is only basing that off the Frank Mallory Docs. The Docs that Frank found are not as complete as the ones you find now at the archives now. So I could see looking at the packet that Frank sold, one could assume they did buy some Lyman 5A's. But seeing the rest of the documents it really paints a different picture.
But I think where the confusion lies on those Lyman 5A's, is when you look at Frank's packet and those WWII Marine docs in there. The Terminology on the A5 is all over the place. Almost every document you see on the A5 in WWII, they seem to name it a different name. Like for example they call them Lyman 5A, Lyman A5, Winchester 5A, A5, A-5. Basically the terminology on the scopes is all over the place on the A5's. There is nothing uniform. And I personally think Senich was reading these documents and just figured since they used the Lyman 5A name, they had to have them.
But if you go to the archive now and pull the files for the Mariens from 1919 to 1940. It's pretty clear when you start reading those, that a Lyman 5A purchase never happened. Those records are pretty detailed of the Telescopic rifles in between the wars. And I have documents buying scopes from Fecker and Lyman. But none of the Lyman purchases were for the 5A.
I just think Senich was reading those WWII docs and just was confusing the terminology.