No4 T grooved hand guards.

[henry r]

firstly, were all No4 T's originally fitted with a grooved handguard?

secondly, how do you tell an original hand guard from a later "conversion".

what sort of wood should a late '44 BSA Shirley have had?

thanks.
henry.

Information

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[jmoore]

Grooved or plain is fine. Generally walnut on '44 or later (T)s. If it's been FTR'ed or similar, than any type wood is acceptable. Early rifles are not so uniform, but they also probably saw much more field use! Usual QM thinking, I reckon. Issue the "tired" stuff first.

[Peter Laidler]

JM is dead right but I'll let you into a secret. In any unit or workshop in the world, then the correct handguard, butt, fore-end, trigger guard etc etc etc is the NEXT one on the shelf in the Armourers shop. If it needs a bit of hand or selective fitting, fettling or colour matching after a fashion, then that's what happens

[Beerhunter]

Remember the grooves (dropped as a manufacturing expedient) were there as an aid to bayonet fighting which hopefully the user of No.4T would not need to resort to.

[chosenman]

Remember the grooves (dropped as a manufacturing expedient) were there as an aid to bayonet fighting which hopefully the user of No.4T would not need to resort to.

How come the grooved hand guards remained during the L42's life and were produced new during the L42 program in beech?

[Beerhunter]

How come the grooved hand guards remained during the L42's life and were produced new during the L42 program in beech?

Who knows. Maybe people liked the look of them. They certainly do these days. My 4T looks good in them. :-)

[Brian Dick]

Original handguards as fitted at BSA and at H&H will have the rifle serial number in pencil on the inside in the barrel channel. Both types of handguards were used.

[CINDERS]

From memory as I have not had my Shirley apart for as while there was a penciled 3 on each part which I ensured does not get erased when I BLO the furniture (The statement about Shirley T sure does not sound right?)

[Eggy]

My 1945 Shirley built T is not grooved

[Brian Dick]

I think most if not all 1944 and 1945 production were smooth from the factory but that doesn't mean a grooved one wouldn't slip into production as they used what was on hand.