LITHGOW Mk 3*

I was helping a friend clean up his guns yesterday, one of which was a Lithgow Mk3* , 1942 manufacture. It was bubba'd, but it still had the original butt with all the markings. What I thought was odd, the rifle seems to have two serial numbers. The normal one, on bolt, barrel, sight, etc. all matching. Then another, U prefix, five digits. It appears on the small flat on top of the butt socket, where NRF rifles were marked. It is also stamped on the bottom of the bolt handle. This rifle has no D arrow D markings anywhere, only a small Broad arrow on the left side of the barrel.(British style) I don't have much experience with WW2 Lithgow rifles, I wonder if this one is unusual? There must be a Lithgow expert out there somewhere!:confused:

Most all lithys have that. It's an assembly number from the factory before the gun was serialized.

Aha! The only ones that I had were really early ones, that lacked the other number. Thanks for clearing that up!