P-14 Aus Sniper Rifle

Bindi, would you mind sharing pictures of the markings on your rifle? Is your rifle double D with broad arrow and D broad arrow D stamped, or only D broad arrow D? Thanks!

Promo it is as i typed my post.

Would you mind showing it? Would be keen to compare the font being used. Thanks!

Don't know if it is of any interest to you guys but I have a manual for the Pattern 18 scope for the No3 Mk1*T (P14) rifle, and it also gives a bit of information about the Aldis scope for the No3 Mk1*T (P14)

Pdf attached :

So how many No.3(T) rifles did Australia purchase from British stocks between the wars?

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Originally Posted by Roger Payne

This is most interesting. I'd never heard of Lithgow set up P'14 snipers. It would be nice to know more precise details of the manufacturers & the markings of all rifles or barrelled actions that Brian & Ian saw at SAF Lithgow back in 1979. The Remington set up certainly sounds a conundrum, & one of the possibilities is of course a sniper assembled after WW1 specifically for Australian requirements. The same could be said of the Winchester made rifles, but it would be nice to see some more evidence as I would have thought that they could just as easily be PPCo set up WW1 era rifles, with additional markings added during their Australian service history. I have to agree with Promo about the 'W' prefix. In my limited experience of P'14 snipers (I have owned about half a dozen, including one Irish contract rifle, & have seen a probably a couple of dozen others in collections or museums which is by no means a huge amount), the W was not routinely added to prefix the serial number when it was relocated to the right rear sight ear. From what I can gather it seems to be a feature of the Irish contract rifles.

Whilst looking to see if I had any saved information that would contribute to this discussion I found the old torn out picture (from Guns Review) shown - from a Weller & Dufty auction of the late 1980's. The rifle here seems to be one of the Winchesters with 'augmented markings'. I don't know if the scope case is matching, but it looks to be British WW1 era, with the typical leather trim to the edges of the webbing. The front mount base also appears to have the typical contours of the run of production PPCo set up WW1 era rifles. Whilst Lithgow could have mimicked the precise contours of the base they didn't bother with the No1 MkIII * H (T)'s, nor did BSA with the Irish rifles.....

Some Lithgow provenance barrelled actions with their mount bases still on them would be really helpful.........short of finding surviving documentation.

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There is several barrelled actions from Lithgow on the market, they have been stripped down and “trued” on the sight wing to allow for scope mounting. I still know where 6 of them are, if I can work out how to post photos, I will post them for you

Kind regards
G

---------- Post added at 11:16 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Promo

Bindi, would you mind sharing pictures of the markings on your rifle? Is your rifle double D with broad arrow and D broad arrow D stamped, or only D broad arrow D? Thanks!

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In a broad statement, all Australian P14s should have both marking, the D with the broad arrow inside indicates Australian government property, likely from the imperial arms program. The D^D with the 2 above indicates a second grade/non standard/reserve weapon, they were added at seperate time in the early 20s to many weapons coming back from the Uk post WW1

sexyfishsticks
The 2 denotes the rifle went to the 2md not 2nd class weapon.

That's interesting sexyfishsticks. Hope you manage to post. If not, & you are prepared to send the photo's to one of us I am sure we could post them for you.

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Originally Posted by Bindi2

sexyfishsticks
The 2 denotes the rifle went to the 2md not 2nd class weapon.

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Don't spoil his fun - next you will be saying that the ones marked D3D. D4D etc went to the 3rd and 4th military districts

A post from our 'aussie friend' Damien on the same subject.

I'm pretty sure that the numerals between the D _D refer to the MD number. I have seen D/I\D on 6, and we did not have 6th grade reserve arms.

MD stamping on my 1916 MkIII.

I edited out it's serial so don't think it's been scrubbed !
Also ages ago the ? came up in relation to what it meant with it I asked politely could someone knowledgeable let us all know, for some reason no one was willing to explain what it means.

Consensus from a member stated along with a scad load of writing he made available to download that it was to do with the metal used at that juncture, basically told anyone interested to go find it themselves even though they said they knew why/what it meant.
I am interested in the Lithgows & their production and would like to know the meaning of this stamping and the issues if any with the metals used and see no real reason for some to play secret squirrel with information thats is like the rifle 109 years old/ago!:yikes: