-
Legacy Member
No. 4 MK 1/2 - Identification Help
-
-
09-10-2020 02:52 PM
# ADS
Friends and Sponsors
-
Legacy Member
yes, 'original' just means 'we haven't had to fix it up'.
-
Thank You to Mk VII For This Useful Post:
-
-
Legacy Member
UPDATE: I found an RFI proof mark on the bolt head. This and other indicators tell me this rifle was in Indian FTR at Ishapore. The Pakistani proof mark on the barrel indicates POF FTR. This has the earmarks of a rifle that has changed hands probably through the India-Pakistan War of 1962. I think this rifle has obviously seen combat.
-
-
Legacy Member
I don't think it was FTR'd at ROF Fazakerley; the conversion markings are not of the style used there.
-
-
Legacy Member
Can you show a picture of the barrel marks? I'd be interested in that.
That "No 4 Mk 1/2" looks like the "No 4 Mk 2" that was done to my gun somewhere in India (probably) or Ethiopia, not at Fazakerley. The FTR marks I've seen for Fazakerley are electropencil and a lot more compact & professional. Your stamp looks similar (but not identical) to mine: hand stampings from individual letter chisels. Too generic for someone wanting to fake factory marks, but too professional for a random Joe in the field.
I have an RTI No 4 Mk 2 that went the India to Ethiopia route. There's no documentation, but I have to assume that a gun "trader" bought a truckload (or boatload, etc.) of surplus Indian No 4s, and then shipped them to one side or the other of the Ethiopian civil war. Post-war, they got collected and stacked in the goat sheds.
With these guns, there's been so many opportunities for FTRs and so few remaining proof marks that we're never going to "know" the history of the guns. However, in their own way, they have their own mystery paths that make them interesting to me.
Not interesting enough to sent RTI any more money, mind you...
-
Thank You to davidwrankin For This Useful Post: