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Thank you
For a moment, I thought I was going loony, but I may still be wrong and somebody who knows more may come along and correct me.
So far, it does look to me like there's a serious problem. I wonder if the GER diagram is just wrong? That's one possible explanation. The other explanation really doesn't bear thinking about, but I will summarise it below.
The difficulty we seem to have is: How do you collect paint in the knurling at the muzzle end while scratching at the muzzle end with the brim? The muzzle end is on the rifle barrel side, and that being the case, it's actually a really difficult thing to do, if not impossible. You would have to hold the silenced rifle flat to the aga surround and then somehow the friction with the brim causes the paint to collect in the knurling.
I suppose the paint could curl off the brim and be 'squashed' between the silencer housing and the aga surround surface, thus ending up embedded in the knurling, but even then, you still have the issue of how the silenced rifle can be pivoted to produce the effect. I really don't see it happening.
The more disturbing alternative scenario is as follows:
(i). The scratch marks are made on purpose with something else (maybe the Pargeter gun, hence why it was removed).
(ii). The paint traces are collected up (with a false nail?) and then implanted in the silencer knurling, in the mistaken belief that the knurled ribbon is at the open end. If - a big 'if' - Ann Eaton did this, maybe she didn't realise which way round the paint should go, or maybe the knurled ribbon was the only place the paint would 'stick', or maybe she just didn't think about what she was doing.
This is all speculation, let me stress. I'm not alleging anything.