John, the side plate checkering is smaller then the rest, but very neat and uniform made. If this is factory checkering ?..
Ken D, no, the pistols has never been deactivated for sure.
Karl, I think you are on the right track, except that the side plate checkering was not done because of pitting because under neath is clean as far as I can see. The rear sight is not modified and when you aim the gun, the channel in the toggle does not seems the interferes with the sighting, so I do not know why it was done.
Thank you guys for your input.
Alf.