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This marking is on the stock of a 1915 dating BSA No. 1 Mk.III (not * marked on the receiver ring). It came from an Arsenal and has no firing proof nor dealer markings. I noticed the stock has a star marking on the butt stock. Can anyone tell me what this marking is for or who had it applied?
Really, noone an idea?
I looked through Skennertons The Broad Arrow there are some star marks in there but nothing like the one pictured others may be able to assist you, me I thought along the lines of Israeli but that is just a wild guess and most probably incorrect.
Beats me too... Can't recal ever seeing it or anything like it before.
I have, however, put strange markings on a few things that will cause a bit of head scratching for generations to come... Will help me ID them when they come up on sale sites.
Just as an afterthought, is there any other marks on the rifle anywhere that give any clues to its history? Perhaps some obscure unit or spare part mark?
This is probably no help, but:
My first thought was one of the groups in the chinese civil war but a quick search turned up nothing.
The guatemalan airforce used a roundel with a 5 pointed star with a circle in the middle, but the dimensions are different changing the effect.
The brazilian army (or army aircraft?) also used a vaguely, sort of similar if you squint, symbol from the early 30s to the early 40s, but they used mausers.
If that might help, the rifle is said to had been among the batch of K98k rifles coming from Albania which I've recently looked at. And as mentioned, therefore it does not have any modern firing proofs nor dealer markings. But I had never seen an Albanian star marking either? And the Israeli markings on SMLE rifles I've seen were always on the receiver.
Indonesian ownership marking perhaps?