39 Attachment(s)
Drill Purpose Sht LE Mk1***
There are many reasons why a rifle might be down graded to "Drill Purpose" status, I suspect that this one was done because it became obsolete and I think that it may be the reason it has survived.
Whoever was told to DP mark this rifle really went to town and almost every part that could be stamped was, in consequence it made the parts unusable for any other rifle.
There are some obvious markings on the rifle, the "N" under the butt would be a strange place to mark its length in fact I don't think that these rifles were made with different lengths to the butt dimension, could it be to denote "Navy" ownership?
The "1142" number stamped on top of the action has been there for a very long time looking at the font and could possibly be a rack number.
Then there is the "Ishy" screw but this is explained by the fact that at some point in its life this rifle had been wire bound at the fore end, the witness marks on the woodwork are testament to this for its use in grenade launching, the screw would appear to be just another way of reinforcing the stock
The magazine is not not correct for the marque and the bolt appears to have been renumbered to the rifle but apart from that it is matching throughout including its original barrel. As can been seen from the pictures all of the parts are in very good condition, even the underside of the barrel which normally would show some signs of corrosion is as good as the day it was first assembled.
The barrel is clean and bright and gauges at .3035, and it passes both breech and muzzle wear gauging, the headspace is spot on and it has a full set of UK proof house marks which makes it perfectly safe to shoot.
Whilst it was apart for cleaning I took as many pictures of the various "inspectors" marks as I could find, some of the pictures appear to be duplicates but I wanted to show all of the marks as clearly as I could, not all that easy on a round surface.
