No.4 replacement barrel

Is there any way to determine if a barrel on a no.4 has been replaced in it's lifetime? I have an all-matching Fazakerley that has undergone FTR in 1948, so could well have been replaced at that time, I suppose.
The rifle itself has at least one unusual trait that I cannot begin to figure out. The s.n. is T 1042, which has would of course be correct for a no.5, but for a no.4?
I've gathered from this site that all old numbers were usually left on the piece, in order to give a history of it, even though they might be lined out if a new number was assigned. That being the case, this is the original number? Any ideas?

If it was a Fazakerley rifle then it's more than a remote possibility that the original number has been lost or become identifiable. I'd guess that along the line somewhere that a little judicious book=keeping might have taken place and........... Well, you know how things are in the real world..................

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

If it was a Fazakerley rifle then it's more than a remote possibility that the original number has been lost or become identifiable. I'd guess that along the line somewhere that a little judicious book=keeping might have taken place and........... Well, you know how things are in the real world..................

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Yeah, I can easily imagine somebody screwing up in a large factory like that. I can see a host of difficulties with such a scenario, though, not the least of which would be in using a totally bogus number like that one and getting it past the inspector. But still....
My original question still stands, though. Not necessarily for this particular rifle, though. I have 5 no.4s, two of which have dated barrels, one is serialized to match, two are unmarked. I have never seen any information on this subject, not even after spending many, many hours going over old posts. Very educational, and entertaining to boot.
So- does anyone have an answer? Educated guess? Wild guess?
Thanks

Bob........ I mean that the number has been transposed while the rifle is out in service, many years after it left the factory. They all had a pretty hard life out there! This isn't a wild guess on my part but a statement of how things actually work and happen.

There's a similar question on the restoration page about a Sten gun with a new number following the 'loss or otherwise indistinguishable' of the original number.

Can someone put up a photo of an example of the dire and shallow feint Faz engraving?

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Originally Posted by bob4wd

Yeah, I can easily imagine somebody screwing up in a large factory like that. I can see a host of difficulties with such a scenario, though, not the least of which would be in using a totally bogus number like that one and getting it past the inspector. But still....
My original question still stands, though. Not necessarily for this particular rifle, though. I have 5 no.4s, two of which have dated barrels, one is serialized to match, two are unmarked. I have never seen any information on this subject, not even after spending many, many hours going over old posts. Very educational, and entertaining to boot.
So- does anyone have an answer? Educated guess? Wild guess?
Thanks

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PLs answer is right. The original numbers were very feint on the action of many rifles. Therefore armourers like PL renumbered them. Unnumbered barrels without dates remember there was a war going on and those were low on the list to getting the rifle into service or repaired.

Ah yes, that makes total sense. I will attempt to attach a picture of the markings, which support your supposition totally. One can almost make out a "T" and maybe a "10", but the rest is just a smudge. The date was struck twice, as well, I noticed. Too faint even for them?