Please Help Me Identify Lee-Enfield Rifle

[99GTMichael]

Hello,

I have come into possession an Enfield Rifle. I was told that it is a 1947 No. 4 Mk. 1 . I would like some help truly identifying what this rifle is. I am not familiar with these rifles, so some insight would be much appreciated.


I assume these are import markings

Very faint electro-pencil marks. Appears to say, "No 4 Mk 1 (F) FTR
749 Y7198 K 1

M. 47
1 (unintelligible) 3
Y71987

Is this cocking piece common to No 4 Mk 1?


Pointing arrow

Serrations on hand guard

Drilled and tapped holes in the body of the receiver/bolt

I am not a firearms expert by any means, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[CowboyBillWatts]

"I assume these are import markings" -- yes. century arms.
FTR - factory thorough repair. british notation for a factory rebuild. the "749" might indicate july of 1949. i can't see ANY of these markings in the picture.
M47 -- marking of birmingham small arms and indicates the rifle originated in that factory.
"Is this cocking piece common to No 4 Mk 1?" -- in my humble opinion, no. it was common to early production in 1941, or perhaps 1942, but was abandoned for the more familiar rectangular design. i have a 1941 longbranch and a 4C 1942 savage with the round cocking piece. again early production.
Pointing arrow -- british acceptance mark, i think....????
Serrations on hand guard -- there were two styles with the relief and without. no idea of the significance. not sure there is any.
Drilled and tapped holes in the body of the receiver/bolt -- major bummer!!

i tried. hope i helped some.

[cml]

The date looks like 1943 to me.

[Roger Payne]

Yes, I think it's a M47 1943. The serial is a little odd though. Usually 43 dated BSA rifles bear the 'A plus another letter followed by a four digit number' system, but if the serial was Y followed by four digits it might be consistent with the numbering system used immediately before that - a hangover if you like from the system used during 1941/42. The serial looks like Y7198 to me - there does look to be a possible '7' after, but it looks very shallow & in a different font. If it was Y7198, things would fit into place.

[99GTMichael]

Greatly appreciate all the information. I must admit, I had hoped that it would a WWII production rifle. The history associated with such a weapon is plain fascinating to me.

Another question: Are Lee-Enfield rifles picky with ammunition? My only other rifle is a Garand, and I understand that there is some truth to shooting particular ammunition.

[Peter Laidler]

They are not particularly picky with ammunition as they';re single shot bolt action rifles. They shoot it - or they don't. There's no gas operation to follow the firing o concern you of course. But they ARE picky when it comes to ZEROING or accuracy with some commercial ammo so bear that in mind

[Daan Kemp]

Single shot bolt action?

[Peter Laidler]

Yep....., single shot....., one shot at each pull of the trigger and bolt action because you manipulate a bolt to carry out the mechanical action. Am I missing something?

[Parashooter]

In this part of the colonies, a "single-shot" arm is one that lacks a magazine and must therefore be loaded afresh for each shot. We might choose "manually operated" to differentiate from "self-loading" (or "autoloading") magazine arms. Another dubious choice would be "turnbolt" - despite the many autoloaders with bolts that turn. Go figure!

[Peter Laidler]

That's the trouble with you colonials and those wild antipodeans Para....., lack the refinements found in the peace loving shores of the motherland. A common people divided by a foreign language