"Branded" Merwin Hulbert?

[DJ]

I've had this Merwin Hulbert for a few years and shoot it occasionally.  I got some repro grips to use so I don't break the original orange mottled grips.

Recently I noticed that it has something scratched into the roundels at the top of each of the original grips.  It's hard to photograph, but it looks kind of like a capital "P" over a "V." It could be just a prior owner's initials, but the way they're connected the design looks similar to cattle brands I've seen.  Just for fun I looked for cattle brand registries, but the online ones I found made it seem like you had to know the location before you could look up the brand, and I didn't get very far.

This may be a wild goose chase, but is there some way to look up cattle brands of the (presumably) late 1800s?  If that's even what this is.

--DJ

[Rube Burrows]

I think it my be PLV. which was more likely a previous owner's initials.

[Coffinmaker]

  Ah . . PLUS ONE for Rube Burrows 

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