No. 32 Mk 3 Mount Numbers?

[cwbuff]

What do the numbers stamped on the bracket and rings mean? Specifically "N355" and "N356". Is there a way to find out what manufacturer made the mount? Thanks.
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[CINDERS]

Thats so the rings can not be mixed up front to rear nor side to side (180- degrees out) as they are matched.

[cwbuff]

That makes sense. Who manufactured the scope brackets/mounts? Were they made by the sniper rifle builders like Holland & Holland, or were they made by other contractors?

[smle addict]

Two iron foundries contracted to produce the rough cast brackets. The rough castings were then finished once mating to rifle and 'scope pads took place at H&H.

John Daglish mounts are marked N92.
Rose Brothers are marked either JG or KD. Earlier specimens bear a small circle with RBG2 or RBG4.

There was a third maker, but they were bombed out during the war and never delivered brackets. I believe it was Thamesbrooke. I don't have access to my reference material at the moment.

Also, if a rifle/scope combination have been through FTR, then the manufacturers marks could be scrubbed off.

[cwbuff]

Thanks - that is what I was looking for.

[Roger Payne]

smle addict is right on the nail, although I think the foundry was called Thamesbank Foundry. They got blitzed early on & never produced any brackets in volume, although AFAIK no one really knows whether or not they produced small quantities/test pieces before being bombed out. I have two or three incomplete/partially machined castings in a cupboard somewhere that came ultimately from RSAF Enfield (after the British Aerospace takeover) that are neither Dalgleish nor Rose Brothers yet are clearly old, & I have often wondered about them.........
And we mustn't forget the Canadians; they produced their own brackets for their Long Branch 4T's, although they are much scarcer than the UK variants.

[cwbuff]

Thanks for the replies. Back to one of my original questions. I understand that the numbering on the rings so that they stay in the original alignment. Do these have their own serial numbers? For example, mine has numbers N355 and N356. Did the next set produced have numbers N357 and N358? Does the "N" prefix have any relationship with production by John Daglish?

[Roger Payne]

As far as I am aware Rose Brothers did not use a letter prefix, just the sequential numbers. Both manufacturers started at 1,2, then 2,3 then 3,4 & so on up to 998,999. I don't think anyone went past three digits. Re the letter prefixes I think Dalgleish would have just worked their way sequentially through the alphabet.

[Peter Laidler]

Thamesbank............ Something in the back of my memory tells me that it was ELMBANK foundry somewhere up in Scotland..........., one of the small ship yard sub contracting foundries. I stand to be corrected of course

[Roger Payne]

Mea culpa. Elmbank it is! Shows the folly in relying on memory as I get older......

I just googled them & they were based in Glasgow but did also have a foundry in London in later years. They went out of business in 1969. As an aside they also manufactured a substantial proportion of the 75 million Mills bombs we produced during WW1. I have several examples (inert) of their work.