1944 Dispersal Rifle?

Both look to be 1945 to me, after blowing up the images.

If you look at standard number stampings, the top horizontal on a 3 is almost always much longer than on a 5, which is usually the way to tell the difference.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roger Payne

Aren't those two different rifle butt sockets Alan? The first does look like it could be 1945, but the second definitely looks like 1943, at least to me.

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Sorry, Yes - I posted a 43 as well to show the slight difference in curvature between a 5 and a 3

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lee Enfield

A friends estate that I helped with had a 1945 dated "Dispersal rifle"

I likewise believed it was a poorly struck "43" until i examined it closely - it was indeed dated 1945.

I will see if I can find pics, or track the rifle back down.

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Do you have the serial number?

Is there any way of finding out how many of those dispersal rifles were made in 44?

My thoughts are that this rifle has possibly been re-serialled during its FTR at BSA.

I've seen quite a few photos of No 4 FTR's from BSA in the 1950's which have been given new "A" prefix serials.