Steve,
The rear sight groove is the earlier style (the same as the 1908 6.5" and the 1914 5" Triple Locks in the picture. The front sight blade is actually a little thinner than the blades on the other two guns. When I put a micrometer on all three blades and grooves, there are slight differences in all as might be expected from hand polishing before the finish was applied.

So Saxon, on the 4" gun the difference between the thickness of the blade and the groove is greater than either of the other two resulting in more light on each side in the sight picture. It is a very subtle difference but most certainly a quicker picture. (The first year gun has the tiniest sight picture that I have ever seen and makes that on the current micro .380 autos that are so popular for CCW, look like a target sight.)

Mike,
I'll try to get a better picture of the blade. Your point about the pin placement is well taken. However, I will say that the pin certainly looks undisturbed from the original finish. As I mentioned before, it protrudes from each side in the manner that the factory pins do when they were placed before bluing. In other words, the barrel and boss was polished, then the sight was pinned in and then the finish was applied. There are some plier marks on the side of the blade as though someone attempted to use a needlenose to make a windage adjustment, however, because of the strength of the steel, it did not bend. The marks are much later than the finish on the gun or the sight.

Ed,
I got the gun from my table mate here in the DFW area. I just called him and he said that he has had the gun for more than 10 years and did not get it from Bill. I guess it is possible that Bill sold it to whoever my table mate bought it from. Did Bill have one similar to this? The serial on this one is 13345.

On the SWCA site Roy told me when the gun sold but that "the gun is not in my data base and the invoices are not very good". I am unclear as to whether that means just the info that he has at hand or includes all the info in the factory records at the Musem so I don't know if a Factory letter will add anything or not.

Thanks to all.

Bob