Guns, Dogs and Blades QnA

After looking at the 1777 Pattern in the Williamsburg exhibit, the one up for auction lacks the flared front on the second ramrod pipe.

And you never know what sort of repairs were done in the field or if the gunsmith did a little something diffent
Not sure of the methods of production but assume that it was not all that dissimilar to postwar practices in the US where distributed gunsmiths built arms to a specification and government approval. I used to recall more correctly the series of proof marks and what element of assembly and inspection they represented. I'd have to look it up again