April and February were just the cover dates on those editions of the magazine. The February edition would have been on store shelves probably as early as December. The April edition would have likely been on store shelves in February. If Klein's still had the 36 inch model in stock in March, then they would have shipped one of those to Oswald instead of the 40 inch.
April and February were just the cover dates on those editions of the magazine. The February edition would have been on store shelves probably as early as December. The April edition would have likely been on store shelves in February. Nice theory, but there isn't a shred of evidence that this was the case for the American Rifleman. One can imagine that they would print and distribute the magazine somewhere in January to get it in the shops in the actual month. But if - as you say - it was in the stores in December, the magazine would have had to be printed in November, requiring the advertisers having to submit their adverts four months ahead of time. That simply does not make any sense, but even if we assume that you are correct, that would mean IMO that Klein's would have had to make sure that they had sufficient stock in store as they could not risk running out of rifles before the date of the magazine.
If Klein's still had the 36 inch model in stock in March, then they would have shipped one of those to Oswald instead of the 40 inch.That's the same circular argument that John refered to in his last post.
The mere fact that Klein's shipped out a 40" rifle (if that is indeed what happened) is in no way proof that they had run out of 36" rifles. Like many other businesses, Klein's was dealing with people (like for instance collectors) who ordered a specific type and model rifle because that's the exact one they wanted. You just can not simply send them another rifle than the one ordered. It doesn't work like that now, nor did it back then. Besides, there is no evidence whatsoever that Klein's had run out of 36" rifles.
