A 1942 Maltby with a 1941 Long Branch S.N.?
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A 1942 Maltby with a 1941 Long Branch S.N.?
I may be wildly wrong Giove, but I think what could be a letter L is in fact a 1.
There is no gap at the wrist where the butt joins as PL pointed out there needs to be a small gap otherwise the recoil will start to splinter the wood as you can see how little pieces have started to split off from the wrist wood, PL said it was a wedge fitment for the butt to the wrist socket.
Certainly in a hurry to stamp it perhaps it was end of shift on a week end!
Would a Maltby have a 6 digit serial number ?Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Payne
Could it be prefix with letter "O" and then the 5 digits with the 1st prefix number being 1 to denote Maltby manufacture ?
No.4 and No.5 rifle serial numbers can readily identify manufacturers. British No.4 rifles have five numbers, usually after one or two letter prefixes. The same letter prefix(es) were used by Maltby, Fazakerley & BSA Shirley, A to Z then AA, AB to AZ, then BA to BZ, CA to CZ &c.
Maltby rifle serial numbers commence with a number '1',
Fazakerley with a '2' and
Shirley with a '3',
e.g. 1xxxx for Maltby, 2xxxx for Fazakerley and for Shirley, 3xxxx, after the letter prefix.
Late Shirley numbers then supposedly ran A4000 to A7999 and with PS prefixes at the very end of production. Post-war Fazakerley No.4 rifles had PF letter prefixes. The only exception to the 5-number sequence for No.4 rifles was the initial BSA Shirley production which ran from 0001 to 9999 then went with A to Z prefixes (A0001 to A9999 to the Z prefix) and some early dual letter prefixes (e.g. AT 0303), but then went over to A30001, &c. So early M47C No.4 rifle numbers could be confused with the Jungle carbine in having four rather than five numbers.
Sorry Alan. Yes, I should have been more specific. I think after the first run Maltby did use a letter prefix, & of course, the serials started with a '1'.
Yes, thanks, you all are right.
I was deceived by what the Italian depot (PMAL) stamped:
Attachment 128021
Would they used the letter O though?Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan de Enfield
In my old engineering days, we never used the letters I, O & Q as prefix's because they could be misread as zero, one and zero.
I have a WW1 era SMLE that has a 'O' prefix, & whilst I cannot be 100% I'm pretty sure I've heard of at least one 'O' prefix 44 BSA 4T, although I agree it's potentially confusing.
And Savage had 0Cxxxx whilst Long Branch had 0Lxxxx
0C1 - 1941 MKI lowest # 1941 date
0C2804 - 1941 MKI highest # 1941 date
0C3870 - 1942 MKI lowest # 1942 date
https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...duction%20line.
They're from t'other side of pond though, so doesn't count regarding old British Engineering practices ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Alan de Enfield
Yes me too. My LSA SMLE is ‘O’ prefix (I had to spell out to my local firearms licensing dept that it was ‘oh’ not ‘zero’). In regards various SMLE production across the types and years, LSA used an ‘O’ and I believe Enfield used ‘I’ and ‘O’ serial prefixes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Payne
I believe Maltby were particularly untidy in how serials were applied by hand. The person who stamped my No4 must have had bad eyesight and been standing on a slope!
From my records I only have ONE "O" No. 4 T, they do exist.Quote:
Originally Posted by Roger Payne
It might have been yours that I was thinking about Lance!;)
And yes, DD, mine is a LSA 1917 example. In fact it is a very clean barreled action, one of a number that I have acquired over the years to rebuild as a complete rifle come that rainy day when I finally get around to it.:p