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help to ID Enfield
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hi everybody,
i am new here and new to collecting mil surplus. a local retailer went out of business and i bought two C.A.I. Enfields. one seems to be a Savage and the other i am having trouble identifying. i will try an post pics as soon as i can.
the receiver has MK406322 (made up of little dots), on the stock near the trigger guard has SL, theh underneath N (or IV?), then 74, then big upside down V, then a star, then a small crown? and M 52. the N a little further down what looks like another crown on top of 7K? the magazine has a boxed S. the "safety" has a B, the bolt head has a 0, and what looks like crossed swords, and maybe an F off to the side and rotated. the receiver has the same crossed swords opposite the "safety". on the muzzle end there is SM on the "nailed/riveted" band. the front site has 045 FY, the muzzle has C.A.I. GEORGIA vt .303 ENGLAND. on the grip band below the safety is EA2576....any help would be greatly appreciated.
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C.A.I = Century Arms International, the importer into the USA
MK 406322 is a serial number placed on the receiver by CAI as the original one was too faint to be read.
S.L. = William Sykes Limited the manufacturer of the component part (so marked) for the rifle
N74 is the WW2 suppliers code for William Sykes Ltd. Horbury, Yorkshire
the "V" "*" and crown are inspection marks
M52 is the WW2 suppliers code for Butler and Co. Ltd Birmingham - another WW2 suppliers code ( by the way the M stands for Midlands and the N in the sykes code stands for north - geographic areas)
The boxed S on the magazine indicates Savage manufacture
The B on the safety indicates BSA manufacture
The "0" on the bolt head indicates the bolt head length range - there are longer bolt heads 1, 2 and 3 which can be interchanged to improve headspace.
The F on the bolthead indicates Fazakerley manufacture
SM on the band indicates Singer Manufacture
The CAI georgia is the import stamp
The EA2576 is part of the original serial number that shoud have another number followed by an A
The serial number indicates the receiver was made at the Royal Ordnance Factory at Fazakerley around 1943
Your rifle is consistent with a large batch of No.4 Mark 1 rifles imported a few years ago by Century which they sourced out of Turkey.