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Would the all the BSA SHIRLEY No. 4 MK I T sniper rifles have the serial number of the rifle penciled in the barrel channel of the forearm and inside of the hand guards ? What type of front sight base was used ,the split with locking screw or the solid one ? The butt socket is marked M47C , 1944 with TR serial #B31122 .
In theory all sight blocks should have been the type with the screw & the solid based foresight blade. However, in practice & over time this was relaxed & most 1944 rifles that I have seen & that seemed to be unmessedaboutwith, bore solid blocks & split based sight blades.
I think I had read in Peter Laidler's book AN Armoure's Perpective that the solid block foresight was not considered acceptable and rejected by Holland and Holland examiners ?
Well, that's not borne out by my limited experience. I think certain minor relaxations were permitted as production went along.
"My limited experience..." I snorted my coffee when I read that
And in my equally limited experience, solid blocks were tacitly accepted. Mechanically, it makes absolutely no difference. H&H were not employed or tasked to change the blocks and if it'd already passed the higher accuracy pattern, why bother
I think a number of things happened that were just aimed at keeping production going as smoothly & rapidly as possible, providing it did not adversely affect quality/accuracy. Another example: for years I was convinced that some 1943 BSA rifles I'd owned or knew of, were fitted with replacement Singer rearsights of Savage manufacture probably at the H&H factory in London at the time of conversion to T's. (In theory this shouldn't have happened, but why reject a perfectly serviceable rifle just because it arrived with a Mk2 battle sight on it?). The rifles all lacked the S on the cut-off block, & I was as satisfied as I could be that they had not been interfered with post war. However, it was just a hunch, but then relatively recently forummer Mk VII posted on here his discovery of documentation that actually confirmed that a supply of Savage made rear sights was made available for exactly this purpose. Sometimes y'just have to read between the lines a bit......
Hi Rob, hope all's well with you!
Thanks for the information on the sights . Has anyone information on the penciled serial numbers on the forearm wood ?
From memory my BSA 1944 T has the pencilled serial No. of the rifle under the top woods and bottom wood when I had it apart a while ago I did not take the butt off to check the wrist but its patina matches the other woods so I assumed it will be on there..
Its so the rifles timber stayed with that rifle as it had already passed that accuracy test when assembled so made sense to keep them as a single unit whilst they fitted the pads and scope lest the accuracy go up the creek.....
From Peter's book & discussions with him over the years I'm pretty sure the wood was marked in pencil by the workers at H&H simply to ensure the right wood went back on the right rifle, as Cinders said.
All the parts from a particular rifle were put into a long cardboard box and onto a shelf until the rifle was ready for re-assembly. Just as Cinders and DRP say, the rifle number was penciled on the fore-end and handguards to ensure that these accuracy related parts went back on the same rifle. If it came in accurate, it would go out accurate!
Not quite (T) related but thanks for confirming the pencil markings. My LB No4 has the serial pencilled on the handguards and fore-end channels, with that in mind I can assume it was stripped and saw some kind of extensive servicing or refinishing. Cheers, always been curious.
Very common with target rifles.Quote:
Originally Posted by nijalninja