[m1903a3]

I realize I'm beating my head agains the wall, but . . .

The most recent (2012) book on handguns of the German navy, Faustfeurwaffen der deutschen Marinen 1849 - 1918 states on page 215 "After 1910 a steel marking disc was inserted in the wooden shoulder stocks."

The actual ReichsMarineAmt directive ordered that discs similar to those used on the Navy's Gew98's be used. The Gew98 marking discs are all steel. Here are two, one on a 1906 DWM Navy Contract rifle and one on a 1916 Spandau issued to the Navy.

Finally, the idea that they may have switched to brass at some point is, frankly, preposterous. Brass was a strategic war material in critically short supply, so much so that the Navy even asked the sailors to forgo the brass nameplates on their ditty boxes to conserve the metal. They switched from brass to steel whenever they could, not the other way around. Yet my unissued stock is from the tail end of Navy P.04 production, among the last made. It has a steel disc, just like the rest of the real ones and my early 1906 one.