Oddball #4

[boltaction]

Good evening:
I've been in touch with a fellow selling a number of Lee Enfields from an estate, and one of them is a puzzle. It is a #4, but with no markings that he can see or I can see from his photos, save a deeply engraved 666 on the receiver (oh no, a devil gun!), and an uninterpretable marking on the bolt handle. Alternatively, it could be a 999 on the receiver, or something else odd--the middle mark isn't really quite a 6. The gun is full wood, with a dark paint like finish. Would this be some sort of private rework? A Khyber Pass has crossed my mind as well. I'm thinking that if this was an FTR, it would be marked as such and there wouldn't be any strange mark on the receiver top, and if it was something that some private collector decided to buff up and refinish to eliminate rust or whatever, the original factory marks might be obliterated, but there still wouldn't be any bizarre mark on the receiver top....

Any thoughts?

Thx

Ed

Information

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[Thunderbox]

Looks like a normal No4 Mk2.

By the colour of the wood, probably in the mid-range of PF numbers. Is there the remains of a number on the underside of the forend at the front?

It does appear to have been repainted, so its possible that the receiver has been skimmed or polished before it was refinished. Possibly done to remove military markings for some reason - or hide its provenance! The "666" does look like a rack or ownership number, possibly from a small national arsenal - ie maybe one of the Caribbean islands or other small former colonial territory.

[paulseamus]

Would like a better pic of the bolt handle as it does not appear to be as heavily scrubbed as the receiver. The original number on the bolt handle is ????474.