Bubba No4 MKI sniper conundrum..ID help?

[ickmann]

Ventured out to Pennsylvania Dutch country this a.m. to rescue this puppy. All in all bubba did a fairly nice job, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not polish the markings off. Got lucky with some, but for the most part they remain readable. He did, however, succeed in removing the bayonet lug, and loosing the front pad and the ejector screw..oh well can't win them all. Here is my conundrum.. for the life of me, the B stamping looks like the Longbranch combination of L and B, but for all of my limited knowledge, all Longbranch serial numbers have L in them...right ? Or did this just apply to the MKI* serial numbering ?? I have read that early BSA Shirley MKI rifle serial #s could be prefixed with the letter B, but this stamping occurs above the date 1941 and not anywhere near the serial number. There is no T, TR, or S stamping anywhere on the receiver to follow the general sniper identification rules, but it looks to me like it is genuine. Pretty darn beat-up, abused and put away wet, but I think this is calling out for a restoration (minus bayonet lug..I am good with a welder, but not that good)

Here is the link to view some pics. If one of you smarter folks out there ( cough, cough, BADGER..) could figure an easier way to attach the pics for easier viewing, it would be greatly appreciated.

http://s31.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../darnyoububba/

Fire at will boys.


Ian

Information

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[Thunderbox]

Poor old rifle! Looks like you have a long project there...

The rifle is an early BSA, so most of the parts are marked with a large "B" instead of the later M47 code. Looks like whats left is all original to the rifle, which is nice.

[tlvaughn]

The rifle is an early BSA, so most of the parts are marked with a large "B" instead of the later M47 code.

+1 Markings are identical to my 1941 BSA (except mine is not a T).

[Roger Payne]

Yep, I would agree with Thunderbox & TLV. BSA didn't switch to using the M47 factory code until some point in 1943. Early rifles are all 'B' marked like this. Initially after the change in '43 they used just M47 for a while, then adding the 'C' some time before the end of that year. Thus you can find 1943 BSA's marked B 1943, M47 1943, & M47/C 1943. The biggest pity is that the rear pad has been very heavily & inexpertly linished. If you really want to do a full restoration job I think you might need to replace both pads as I dread to think what the mating surface of the bracket would tighten up against on the existing rear pad. However, you do have quite a rare early H&H conversion. I have a couple very similar, one of which I had to re-wood when it came to me. Is the foresight protector a 41 dated example? Both of my rifles came with SM41 waisted protectors........

You got a nice rifle & restoration project.

ATB

[ickmann]

SM41 indeed! Agree with you on replacing both pads. The current rear pad will look and function better hanging from the rearview mirror in the Jeep.


I.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Nice save.

[MJ1]

Good luck

[paulseamus]

Whilst it's a shame that the rifle has been Bubba'd, it is interesting to see how the receiver was milled down to accept the front pad.

Hope the project goes well.

Thanks for posting the pics.

Paul