L.S.A. .22

[tedd]

No crown Big Duke and i have not seen any broad arrow marks either, will post some photos

[bigduke6]

Without a crown its a Commercial rifle for sure, but we wait for pics.....

[tedd]

Photos attached...

[bigduke6]

Tedd, Its a Comercial rifle sleeved at some point to .22..........cant help with the initials on the Knox form.

I had a BSA commercial .22 up for sale (still is for sale) for £400 but no takers...... an average Military .22 one I guess would be around the £800 mark, all depends on the conversion date and what it was converted from etc, obvious the earlier and rarer the price goes up.....

[englishman_ca]

Here's my tuppence worth.

The rifle originally was made as a 303 by London Small Arms Co. Ltd. sometime after 1914. It appears to be a Sht.LE rifle in form.

With a military contract arm, it is easy to determine the date of manufacture, it is usually stamped clearly on the right hand butt socket. Not so with a commercial made arm.
However, I can date it earliest, because Lee and Speed's patents were in effect and did not expire until 1914, any commercial arm made prior to this would be required to be banner marked to acknowledge the patents. I see no Lee Speed patent markings.

Parker Hale perfected sleeving the 303 barrel down to .22 rim fire with their liner. Legend has it that 'Parkerifled' barrels shot as good or better as solid purpose made .22 barrels.

L R Tippins (Luke) was a renowned gunsmith of that time, he built target rifles. His son John was a famous prize winning target shooter.

Well worth researching.

[tedd]

Have looked very closely at all the markings and can see none to indicate that the rifle was ever proofed in .303. The punches used to make the serial number on barrel and action are an exact match as are the numbers on the woodwork, nose cap and barrel. The lettering on top of the knox form is the mark of L R Tipping. Would it be possible that this rifle was built as a .22 by Tipping? I took it to an indoor 20mt range on Monday night and the rifle is very accurate, 5 shots into one ragged hole..

[englishman_ca]

Yup, that sounds about right.

I have older (martini enfield) .22 conversions and the barrels wear commercial proofs not unsimilar to your own. No remnants of any 303 markings either.

However,...What I have found is that the original military barrels (with factory inspection markings on the underside) were scrubbed of the 303 designations and reproofed as .22. If I didn't know better, judging by the proof markings alone, I would think that the barrels had been manufactured this way as .22 cal.

Tippins was a gun maker, not just a gunsmith. He likely purchased new barreled actions and or components directly from LSA.
He obviously sent his barrels out to Parker to have the liners fitted.

I would imagine that the rifle would be a complete new build with the ParkerRifled barrel, proofed as a .22 and duly marked.

All the new markings would be done at that time with the same set of stamps.

[Jc5]

englishman_ca: Thanks for the info about .303 marks being scrubbed...that's good to know.

tedd: Thanks for posting photos. Could you please post a pic of the entire rifle and also a pic of the top-rear flat part of the action (where the bolt slides in)...I'm curious if there is an assembly number stamped there. You would need to raise the bolt handle to see.

As we have all mentioned above, the knox marking is definitely L.R. Tippins, Mistley, Manningtree. Pretty cool. This rifle was made no later than 1914. Most likely between 1907 and 1914.

[bigduke6]

The barrel certainly started life as .303, as its sleeved.......