Original or Repro Forend ?

Hi Guys
Is the forend a repro as the only markings present on it are near the king screw. I bought it on e bay and it has never been fitted.
Regards Chubbs
Attachment 127393
Attachment 127392

Not sure about the upper mark, but the lower one is the broad-arrow within a U, which denotes South African ownership/production

Is the upper mark the Australian "Star"?

It's common South African contract beech. I know that stuff all too well. It's a job to fit but comes out perfect as long as the barrel channel is mostly straight! My question to our SA and UK brothers is was it manufactured on contract in the UK or in South Africa? No one seems to know.

I have my doubt we ever manufactured wood for No 4 rifles. Possibly No 1 early WWII when we didn't have broomsticks to fight with. Terry would know the detail I believe.
I think the No 4 Mk II rifles were delivered late forties with spares.
If it is no 1 wood, when we could still buy a No 1 from government stores, we got spare wood with it. This didn't happen with No 4 rifles.
The new 'government' was horrified to realise soldiers could buy a rifle from government stores - arming the population as we didn't differentiate race in the sales, stopped it summarily and sold off all LE stuff, I believe at a give away price. Nowadays the 'government' would destroy all such and not sell it.

Thanks for the replies Guys.
Daan Kemp. The wood is for a No4 MK 1.
Regards Lee

There has been a lot of this woodwork floating about over the years on both sides of the pond. I've also wondered about when & where it was manufactured. So far as I remember on all of the sets I've seen, the metal furniture (nose cap etc) is generally dated as late as 1967 (IIRC).

[QUOTE=Roger Payne;518455]There has been a lot of this woodwork floating about over the years on both sides of the pond. I've also wondered about when & where it was manufactured. So far as I remember on all of the sets I've seen, the metal furniture (nose cap etc) is generally dated as late as 1967 (IIRC).[/QUOTE

Hi Roger
No markings on metal.
Regards Chubbs

Thanks Chubbs. I was speaking from memory there..................they may not all be marked, or it may have been the metal reinforcements for the front guards that I'm thinking of. The markings CE 1967 seem to stick in my mind.......but may be wrong!

You're exactly right Roger. The cap riveted to the front handguards are marked "CE1967". My uneducated guess with Daan's reply is that it was made in the UK for SA contract. It's been available on the market for more than 20 years so makes one wonder how much of it was sent to SA? Seems like much of it never left the UK but I could be wrong. I've had hundreds of South African No.4's through here since they were imported by Interarms in the early 90's. I don't recall seeing many of those handguards but there were some that were FTR and like new with it installed. All of those rifles were very well maintained.

I've put out two No.4T restorations this year with it as supplied by clients and both rifles, (a 1943 and 1944}, are hammers. One even made a decent showing at the CMP vintage matches in Talledega, Alabama this year. As I said before, the forends are a bit of a bastard to fit but if the barrel channel is straight, they turn out perfect.

When the SA stock of LE were sold, I believe all the spares and most of the ammunition were also sold. Middle 90s. Never saw or heard of any LE furniture being in the workshops, except for bits and pieces of "it's being lying around her forever".

Some years ago I bought a lot of this furniture, I spent a day in the sellers warehouse sorting thru dozens of huge crates to find (as far as possible) colour & grain matching sets with an L length butt. It was quite difficult as there were 1000's of forends in one stillage, 1000's of handguards in another and 1000's of Butts in another. But, it was worth it in the end.

I have slowly sold them off over the years with the last four sets being shipped to the USA (the Klondike) last year.