zimmerstutzen said:
Any CVA factory finished mountain rifle made in Spain, would not only say so, it would have Spanish proof marks, (required by their law)
And this is where the major flaw of the myth is.
You are of course right about that, a fully finished rifle and/or barrel made in Spain will have their proof marks.
What CVA actually did in the beginning was have the barrel machined, bored and rifled at the plant in Spain,,
,,then have them shipped to the States un-breeched,, basically they where just machined pipe,,
,,Spain had no requirement to stamp them.
The barrel had the breech installed and the rifle components assembled here,, thus still stamped "Made in USA".
A few years went by before Spanish proof houses pressured their government inspectors to put a stop to the practice and the lost money,, that's when the Made in USA was dropped and the complete barrels were made over there with the proof marks.
The original owner of Deer Creek Products (the CVA pro shop) was involved even in those early days and told me in a long conversation that only about the first 200 barrels were made here stateside, then the rest in Spain.
Deer Creek did buy the Douglas machines,, and they did make the 500 commemorative anniversary models. The current Deer Creek owners no longer have those machines nor do they make any barrels,,and as far as anyone knows those fabled Douglas machines probably got worn out, may have been refurbished, parted out and/or scrapped.