Cloned N9 training rifle

This rifle was discovered as a result of the thread started by Gnr527 as I only borrowed it to help answer some of the questions being asked.
As you can see from the attatched pictures the rifle on the face of it looks to be in supurb condition but it is just too good.
The barrel and action a correct but who ever put it together did not do enough homework to get the engraving correct. It is marked as a No9 Mk1, it should have been N 9 and the k in Mk is in the wrong font, the engraving also appears to be slightly further back on the action.
The 25YDS mark on the rearsight also appears to be in the wrong font but they have also missed off the corresponding graduation mark on the sight. The bolt does not have a serial number at all and the woodwork is also missing its serial number on the forend.
There is a Savage "S" on the noseband but I don't know if that is significant as these rifles were made up from rifles of different manufacture including the US. There is a small group of marks on the butt just behind the trigger guard and one of them appears to be a U with an arrow inside, could be South African??? The handguard is missing the finger ribs but again I don't know if this is significant.
This rifle was bought at one of the Bisley fairs several yeas ago by a good friend of mine. He belives it to be the genuine article but with all the above taken into consideration I don't think it is. I know what he paid for it and the good news on that front is that he was not ripped off. On balance he has got a very nice looking rifle that is almost correct and one that shoots well, it's just a shame that someone tried to make it out to be was something that it was not which brings us back to the "repro / clone marked as genuine" argument again

I might well be wrong but a local (now defunct) gun company in the Midlands made up a number of No9 clones about 10 years ago. I know the proprietor also had a lot of brand new No4 Mk2 bodies & South African woodwork......& a first rate engraver (my late machinist).

I think some of them went to German dealers. I'm not suggestging for a moment that the company concerned passed theirs off as originals, but after a few years & having changed hands a few times........

Of course I could be putting 2+2 together & making 22......

ATB

The 25 YDS is by far too big in comparison with an Original.

I have seen a 25 YDS or Yds but they've all got the datum line which is something the remanufacturers forgot