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USMC Marksmanship Badges


Brig
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Another one piece Expert Rifleman with what looks like a WW-II (or later) style clasp.

 

post-1107-1237507189.jpg

brig these are 1903's on this badge in posting 323

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and 321 are Krags...okay...minor difference...what year was the switch?

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From my observations of identical badges, one can tell a BB&B by the closeness of the two wreaths, were they mount on the bar. Others of this era have a wider gap between the two wreaths / mounting rings.

i have an unmarked badge with krags and the hanging loops / wreath ends are close together so not all of them are BB&B's

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normaninvasion
i have an unmarked badge with krags and the hanging loops / wreath ends are close together so not all of them are BB&B's

 

Could you post a pic of it, would really like to see. Thanks

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Could you post a pic of it, would really like to see. Thanks

heres pics sorry they aint better badge is marked sterling on both pieces brian

post-2718-1241985126.jpg

post-2718-1241985143.jpg

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normaninvasion

Your right on about that design not being exclusive to BB&B, nice thanks for showing, if it ever needs a home let me know ;)

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Your right on about that design not being exclusive to BB&B, nice thanks for showing, if it ever needs a home let me know ;)

if i come up with another i might be able to hook you up unless it's marked BB&B

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Bob Hudson

I've got a big bin of various shooting and qualification badges and found these two that look interesting. What's the era of the safety pin catches?

 

usmcbadgea1.jpg

 

usmcbadgea2.jpg

 

usmcbadgeb1.jpg

 

usmcbadgeb2.jpg

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I believe it's often attributed to WWII, but I also have a known KW era badge with that type of pin

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  • 2 weeks later...
any other opinions of the Blackinton badge? I want to say WWII because the rifles are soldered on, not riveted, like the above displayed pistol badge. However, Blackinton USMC insignia seems to be more post war, so I'm not sure. Comparing it side by side with other expert badges, it's a bit smaller, quite noticably
hi Brig

According to Emerson's book the two piece pistol expert and expert rifleman badges with the rivets were produced at Rock Island Arsenal until 1915 then they became one piece. The bright bronze pistol expert badges with crossed revolvers stopped being produced in 1915. The crossed revolvers became crossed 45's in 1915, there are no bright bronze crossed 45's only silver.

I'm not sure if anyone else was making two piece riveted badges. There are many different two piece badges Meyer and H&H are just two companies who made and marked them, many seem to have open C catches the crossed krags shown earlier in this thread or odd Tiffany style catches like on the H&H marked two piece pistol badge missing the pin shown earlier in this thread. some companies used the open C catch after 1937 as i have seen a USMC basic badge with an open C catch. So how late were the two piece badges made? Did Blackinton make a two piece or only a one piece badge? When was Blackinton in business? Does anyone have a two piece pistol or rifle badge thats rivited and maker marked?

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Stinger Gunner USMC
...

Ricardo, you should post those USMC uniforms over in the uniform section. I'd love to see them!

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the Blackinton is two piece. other Blackinton pieces...namely EGAs...have been seen and dated to WWII/Korea eras

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just picked up a small WWI Marine group, Rim #d Good Conduct, No-bar Victory, large hat badge, dogtag, and and an expert

rifle badge.

 

The manufacturer of the shooting badge has me stumped, The badge is well done with crossed 03's with the maker mark

on the reverse. The mark is a rounded "N" in a circle above the word "sterling" on the reverse lower center of the wreath.

 

Who was the maker and was it WWI period?

 

Thanks

 

Bill

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I just picked up a small WWI Marine group, Rim #d Good Conduct, No-bar Victory, large hat badge, dogtag, and and an expert

rifle badge.

 

The manufacturer of the shooting badge has me stumped, The badge is well done with crossed 03's with the maker mark

on the reverse. The mark is a rounded "N" in a circle above the word "sterling" on the reverse lower center of the wreath.

 

Who was the maker and was it WWI period?

 

Thanks

 

Bill

Hi Bill the makers mark is for F. H. Noble & Co. Chicago, IL. I have a Marine Corps basic badge made by them so they were making insignia sometime between 1937 and 1968 i'm not sure about earlier brian

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Hi Bill the makers mark is for F. H. Noble & Co. Chicago, IL. I have a Marine Corps basic badge made by them so they were making insignia sometime between 1937 and 1968 i'm not sure about earlier brian

 

 

Thank you Brian

 

Bill

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I heard somewhere that crossed Krag badges were made quite a while after the switch to '03s. Can anyone with better resources double-check this please?

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  • 3 weeks later...

here's an unfinished piece...an unfinished expert rifle planchet. brass as it was never finished and plated... interesting addition to the collection

Unfinished_Expert_Front.JPG

Unfinished_Expert_Rear.JPG

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  • 2 weeks later...

planchet for an expert badge, marked Gemsco AGO G-2...when was Gemsco using this marking? obviously pre-1956 as this badge is more WWII style. I'm thinking Korean War era or directly after?

Gemsco_AG_Front.JPG

Gemsco_Ag_Rear.JPG

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still wondering if someone can tell me the year the Krags were replaced with the 1903s on expert badges?

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here's an interesting current strike badge marked HLP...first...does anyone know what HLP is for? The Marine scratched his name in two places...the rear of the top bar, and the rear lower half of the planchet...it's 'U' shaped. R. D. Thompson...kind of cool to see this on a more modern piece. got it with a large group of various badges, didn't know it was named until it arrived

Hi Brig HLP stands for His Lordship Products iirc Brian

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planchet for an expert badge, marked Gemsco AGO G-2...when was Gemsco using this marking? obviously pre-1956 as this badge is more WWII style. I'm thinking Korean War era or directly after?

Brig the early IOH numbers were used from around 1953ish to 1963ish brian

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here's an interesting Sharpshooter badge by JK Davison of Philadelphia. A quick Google brought up a lot of veterans and early badges from around the Span-Am time frame, but the mark of that time was just along the rim, not the circle depicted here. Can anyone tell me more about them or better date this badge? thanks

Davison_Front.JPG

Davison_Rear.JPG

Davison_Catch.JPG

 

and the hallmark...

Davison_Mark.JPG

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and the hallmark...

 

Joseph K. Davison's Sons of Philadelphia appears to have first made medals for the Grand Army of the Republic in the post Civil War era - it seems JK Davison was himself a member of the GAR and the first GAR medals were made from bronze cannons they obtained from the US Government. One document lists Davison as being custodian of one of its assets, "gun metal." They made 3,000 bronze medals for the 1905 Presidential inauguration and other big events and I found online a 1912-dated item that had their mark on the back and a Pennsylvania National Guard WWI medal, but they seemed to disappear after about WWI. At some point the company that became Franklin Mint bought "thousands of medal and decoration dies" from the Davison estate. I would place their dates of operations as somewhere around 1880-1920 give or take a few years in either direction.

 

"Obituary: Friday, October 7, 1904, "The Germantown Independent-Gazette":

 

Lieutenant Colonel Joseph K. Davison died on Monday at his home, 419 Locust Avenue in his 67th year.

 

Colonel Davison was well known in G.A.R. and Loyal Legion circles. He enlisted in the Twenty-ninth New Jersey Volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil War and was afterward promoted to be lieutenant colonel and acting commander of the regiment. After his military service he engaged in the diamond and manufacturing jewelry business in New York and Philadelphia. He is survived by three sons and two daughters."

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