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Wes..Two three quarter inch long indents shaped like a bullet head..I believe I saw them pictured in the M38 book on the body parts section. These are on both sides of the tranny floor panel. This is in reference to an earlier quection.

Page 152 of Ryan's book. The driver's side one is just behind the sloped bit where the gas pedal mounts.

Like Hal said in your earlier post, these are to allow excess water to drain out of the floor. There are holes in the rearmost end of these indentations (using your analogy, the bit where the shell casing would go); I have three of these cover plates, and on all of them the indentations were solid with 60-year-old mud.

Putting these drain holes in tends to render the M38's open/close floor drain covers a bit pointless.

Owen.

I believe the correct term would be "weep holes " where
small amounts of moisture (rain etc) could weep from the tub.
There other weeps of a different shape located on the rear
floor near the tailgate. The open/close drains on the front
driver/pass floors to be used when copious amts of water
encountered-fording etc..

They are designed to siphon water from the low areas of the tranny cover. Air or water (if fording) moving past the lower side will create a low pressure area and help siphon the water from the panel. In most installations the bolted edge of the center tranny covers tends to be higher than the floor's foot wells and this prevents the water on top of the panel from reaching the swivel floor drains.