Thanks guys for your comments and to John Sabato for enlightening me on my "find". It was a let down at first, but I learned a lot and even more questions were raised......
Were 8" barrels produced without the machined sight boss? George Anderson mentions Pacific Arms producing them, but I can't find anything more on Pacific Arms.
This barrel has a correct proof mark on the right side and the bore size and correct suffix on the bottom. Do barrels always have a S/N?
I noticed that the sight boss/mount has some pitting on the left outside rear surface. Does this mean that it is relatively old? On the flat inside the dovetail are three letters stamped just forward of the hole for the set screw. They are C, then 1 (slightly lower) and 7 (at same level as C.
There are two vertical scribed marks on the barrel, one at each of the rear corners of the boss/mount, resembling witness marks.
Finally, as this isn't enough, there are other stampings that I haven't seen mentioned on this forum....but I'll post those later. Getting tired!
<img src="graemlins/c.gif" border="0" alt="[ouch]" /> Ron