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I have googled to my hearts content and yet to have find whether not this is in fact the dreaded "ZF" mark. Oh, I am new by the way but I did do a search and couldn't find this particular marking.
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I've only seen a couple but I would expect the Z and F to be closer together. The good news is it doesn't mean the rifle is scrap. It just meant that repair could not be done at local unit level. There were two more levels above that IIRC with Depot Level being the top. If it was a ZF which I am not so sure it is it could have meant the trigger was no good, or the rear sight broke. Check the rifle over and shoot it. If you are not confident in your own analysis bring it to a gunsmith before shooting it.
From a post in 2009 by Peter Laidler -
The short answer to this is that the ZF marking to an Armourer means that this is the end of the line.
Quote;
The Z means that it has been condemned at a Base workshop (that's the Z bit) as suitable only for a Factory Repair (that's the F part). This will indicate something to do with a part that cannot be rectified at Base Workshop and that is inevitably a damaged body. On a No4 rifle, this is what we call 'the master component', a part that is NEVER supplied as a spare part through the Ordnance channels.
There was only one other mark that was more extreme than ZF and that was ZF-BER. Which meant that in addition to the ZF, one of the examiners had decreed it to be beyond economic repair in any case. But effectively, both were the same......................
There was a milder Z-BER which indicated that it wasn't even worth sending to the factory and at workshops, these were torched!
So, the rifle your correspondent is referring to falls into one of three categories
1) scrap
2) very scrap
3) Extremely scrap"
My take on the matter is that the Z on your rifle looks carved but near it you see FR so it has been Factory Repaired I am just saying that a person may have gotten bored!
I think that Z is so big and so deep and so asymmetric and so much wood has been taken out that I can't envisage this was made by an armourer's stamp. Looks like it's been carved with a pen-knife?
Over the years I have had to ZUF many service rifles. And marked them with paint, marker pen, or just a paper label (or lock wire and steel tag for the Artillery.... they had a habit of removing labels!!!)
I have not spent a lot of time marking them ( carving into the wood/plastic) as usually you find worn out guns during an inspection with many other equipment to inspect,
Also.... ZUF weapons are returned to a depot to be rebuilt or striped for spares to be re-used, you cannot re-use a butt with a big Z carved into it.
skiprat, so you saying you don't believe this to be the dreaded ZF?
I would say not done in service....... could be some old Armourer taking his training into the civi gunsmith world.....
70 years + the butt may have been changed.... could have belonged to Zebedee... many many if's and butt's
Look at the whole weapon with a keen eye. any rifle that old will have problems (compared with in service standards)
The marking is NOT "ZF" !!!
Firstly, there are 2 Fs, not one.
Secondly, the deeply carved mark is presumed to be a Z. So it is oriented at a right-angle to the line of the Fs.
Conclusion: I see no connection between the Z and FF, other than that they are on the same piece of wood.
And I wrote "presumed" Z, because if you look at it with the same orientation as the FF, it becomes a kind of N.
The only FF mark I know of on an Enfield is the "Fianna Fail" mark on Irish rifles.
How about a photo of the markings on the knox form? (Knox? Knocks? Nocks? Whatever - you know the thing I mean)
I don't actually. I am new to Enfields altogether. What is that?Quote:
How about a photo of the markings on the knox form? (Knox? Knocks? Nocks? Whatever - you know the thing I mean)
Before this goes on and on.......... and on........... and............ Maybe someone could resurrect the long explanation about this mark from a thread wot I ritt a couple of years ago. UNLESS you know better chaps and have had the rifle examined by someone wot does know, then the letter Z is a danger sign. I confess to being a bit part amateur here but I've seen plenty and marked plenty and written-off plenty