Test Eagle chaos

[MFC]

I think it's safe to say that some Test Eagles were cannibalized to repair others. Many are mismatched.
Is it possible that some the 163 unserviceable pistols inventoried at the Springfield Armory, sent for repair, weren't finished for lack of parts? Then those and the cannibalized pistols and any leftover parts sent to Rock Island later that year for further repair, thus counted twice?
Why would they leave partially repaired Lugers and leftover parts at Springfield if they were going to be sold?

[Dwight Gruber]

Originally Posted by MFC

I think it's safe to say that some Test Eagles were cannibalized to repair others. Many are mismatched.

Mismatched pistols can be found in the range sn 5778 to sn 7976.

Originally Posted by MFC

Is it possible that some the 163 unserviceable pistols inventoried at the Springfield Armory, sent for repair, weren't finished for lack of parts? Then those and the cannibalized pistols and any leftover parts sent to Rock Island later that year for further repair, thus counted twice?
Why would they leave partially repaired Lugers and leftover parts at Springfield if they were going to be sold?

Springfield Armory
Jan. 28, 1910, 163 pistols inventoried "unserviceable but repairable"
Feb. 4, 1910 number of pistols revised to 161
May 25, 1910 refurbishing reported completed
June 10, 1910
159 pistols repaired
2 pistols not repairable


Rock Island Arsenal
Oct. 31, 1910 306 pistols inventoried
Nov. 12 1910
291 pistols repaired/returned to serviceability
13 pistols unserviceable
2 stolen

Nowhere in the surveyed documents is there mention of a transfer of resources.

--Dwight

[spripple33]

Has the date of the sale to Bannerman's been conclusively proven to be 1907? What if it happened sometime after the two reports by Springfield and Rock Island Arsenals about pistols being repaired for eventual sale? If so, could the reason for taking inventory of and repairing the Lugers have been in preparation for the sale to Bannerman?
-Jason

[Dwight Gruber]

Originally Posted by spripple33

Has the date of the sale to Bannerman's been conclusively proven to be 1907? What if it happened sometime after the two reports by Springfield and Rock Island Arsenals about pistols being repaired for eventual sale? If so, could the reason for taking inventory of and repairing the Lugers have been in preparation for the sale to Bannerman?
-Jason

A letter from Francis Bannerman dated July 25, 1907 to the army chief of Ordinance confirms his win of 30 auction lots in the army surplus auction, and requests that the army retain the material until Bannerman's son returns from Europe in September, at which time he will retrieve it (the army grants the request). A document with the actual auction details is yet to be found,

Entries in the document chain regarding the 1910 repairs make it clear, explicitly, that these pistols will be sold only to individuals, and that mass purchases or dealer purchases are expressly forbidden.

--Dwight