As an aside of dubious value, given the fact that as time passes things change, I had a Model of '91 revolver that lettered as shipped as target---with an unnumbered latch/rear sight----------and in addition to my ignorance, I was distressed----more than a little bit!
Jinks to the rescue: Here's what he had to say, about the whole mess: For openers, the gun wasn't born as a target; it was a fixed sight gun pulled from stock, and converted to target----and that was a common practice (with top breaks). As to the unnumbered latch, the Service Department folks work on one gun at a time, with no parts from other guns on their bench, and accordingly have no need to number replacement parts----and don't spend any time doing so----EXCEPT when refinishing was also to be involved.
All this is as of June, 1910. What they did or didn't do before or after (and when before or after) is/may be another matter altogether.
As another aside of dubious value because I reckon most everyone already knows it, the only reason the sundry parts are numbered to match the frame is so they they can get back where they belong after finishing---which is done in pieces, and that goes like this: All parts fit to a frame are numbered. All parts fit to a part fit to a frame are numbered.
Ralph Tremaine
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