U.S. Military Inspector Marks
| U.S. Military Inspector Marks
Small arms of the United States Army and Navy bear an initial or initials which are called inspector's marks. These marks appear on
stocks, grips or metal parts. Some arms, especially older ones, have more than
one inspector's initial or initials. The barrel was inspected before the rest of
the arm was produced and thus there may be one inspector's mark on the barrel
and another on the rest of the parts. The Army and Navy purchased arms from commercial outlets and also contracted directly with the manufacturers. The Navy also purchased some arms from the Army. From the early days of 1831, most small arms contract inspectors were civilians or Springfield Armory employees. Officers who served as inspectors were from the Army Ordnance Department or the Navy Bureau of Ordnance. There were also sub-inspectors who had regular jobs at Springfield Armory, and small arms inspection was in addition to their regular duties. Army or Navy inspectors had control over all sub-inspectors. The nice thing about this long list of inspectors marks is that you can double check in some or all cases the actual date of your gun. For instance, perhaps an 1817 common rifle will have an inspector that approved the guns for only one or two years. If the date on the lock of the rifle differs from the years that the inspector worked, then the lock has been changed and is not original with that gun. The same process would hold true for certain barrel markings. Of course it is always interesting to see the man's name that is stamped on your gun. It must be noted that in some cases, these inspectors are civilian personnel. Others will be military personnel. We believe that in the case of many of these inspectors that when the length of service shows upwards of thirty to fifty years or more, that this is not necessarily the years they inspected arms but merely shows the span of their service while they were in the military units of the United States. THE
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