A Lee-Enfield Sniper F.T.R.

[Giove]

I received pics of this Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk I (T). It is a 1945 BSA FTRed by Fazakerley in 1949. The Butt-stock was replaced (during the FTR?). A bit strange ar the screw heads on the first pad. They look flattened. A bit strange seems, too, the rear pad.

What do you think?

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[Roger Payne]

I hope you're not going to buy it. IMHO it has had the pads fitted fairly recently - at least, well after either 1945 or 1949. The black paint finish on the pads is subtly different to that of the rifle body, & I suspect the month in 1949 when the rifle was FTR'd at Faz would be visible if someone hadn't fitted the front pad afterwards. The pad fitting & screws are messy. The front pad is either a repro or possibly an original that has been heavily linished on its front face, removing much of the radius at the top edge either side of the spigot. The centre punch marks on the pads do not line up with the screw slots. The side wall T is correct in that it has serifs but looks just a little too neat immediately behind the serial number & perfectly aligned. The TR & S look to be in the wrong font to me. There is a filed up area along the middle strut of the bracket where the previous rifle number has been scrubbed out. The cradle clamp numbers have been re-struck (though that could have happened in service). There is no scope serial on the butt yet the rifle bears a T. Is that enough to be going on with?

One interesting positive thing is that the bracket bears the ??early Rose Brothers marking of 'RBG + illegible number' within a circle. The butt, cheekpiece & possibly the pads have the 'look' of being off an Indian rifle. I have seen heavily linished pads looking like this on Indian rifles that were converted to Mk1/2 T spec. Maybe the front pad screws lost their tops when the front pad got linished in 1962/63!

[Gil Boyd]

As Roger says it has a negative feel about it. Certainly the TR & S stamp is definately and totally the wrong font and size. So on that basis I would pass

[CINDERS]

I just find it odd that a 1945 BSA has a Mk I scope my 1944 M47C sports a 1944 MkIII A K & S also the M47C looks different to mine and too neatly stamped the ones on mine look different and are all over the shop I smell a rat.......though I may be wrong have in the past.

[Giove]

Thank you all.

No, I had no intention to buy it. Various "strange details".

I had asked for pictures of the back of the action, and the markings here aren't the ones they shoul be.

[Roger Payne]

The crown7EE is the standard EFD examiner's mark found on all BSA's. As you intimate, the crown D6E is missing; not what you'd expect on a late conversion.

[Lee Enfield]

fake as a 3 dollar bill

[blurrededge]

The front pad screws didn't make it all the way through the action side either

[CINDERS]

Even though the US has not made a $3 bill since the 1800's here is a legit one from that era obviously a collectible now but it was real in the day wonder if they would still honor it..................!

[Gil Boyd]

COTTON what stamped across it?