Sir,

From time to time you have mentioned that Fazakerley had real labor problems in the late 1950’s and that these problems led to its demise. You also mentioned that because of these problems Fazakerley products had some quality control issues. I note in what references I can find that Fazakeley seems to have closed operations no later than early to mid 1961. Just to start: is that basically correct?

Now I note that in Fazakerlay production I have seen the following serial number ranges for what appear to be like new late production rifles.

New production:

UF55 A152 to ~A44000

FTR, but new action bodies used

UF55 none seen by me

UF56 up to ~A10888

UF57 ~A13500 up to ~A24500

On the UF56 and 57 FTR rifles that were using new action bodies, what I have seen (4 rifles total) is that like the new UF 55 rifles, they used the half converted No 4 action bodies, without the front piece on the right side for the cut-off. On all the rifles I have seen, (which again is only 4) I have noted that the action bodies and wood and bolts seem to be new, but the bands, swivels and buttplates seem to be a combination of recycled and new parts. The barrels on the two rifles I took apart were dated 1953 and 1954. To reiterate, other than older bands, buttplates and perhaps swivels that were recycled all other parts seem to be new and the condition on 2 of the 4 rifles I have seen showed very little if any use. Interestingly one of the UF 56 rifles, with what appeared to be new wood had incorrectly fit wood (dated F55) in as much as the front barrel bearing did not have the 2 to 7 pounds of up pressure. All other PF 53, PF 54 UF 55, UF 56, UF 57 rifles I have had a chance to handle seem to pretty much have correctly fitted stocks.

What is the story of the 1956/57 new build FTR marked Fazakerley rifles? Were they marked as FTR because they used some recycled parts? Was the use of older dated barrels using up old stock that was not quite top quality or was they using up spare barrels though to be no longer needed?

Related to that, what sort of quality issues were to be found on these rifles? One thing some shooters have noted is that the barrels seem to be on the tight side, but that seems to be a feature helping accuracy rather then a defect. Most of the rifles I have had a chance to really examine do not seem to have any real defects, other then on the new samples often the triggers are a bit heavier than I might expect on a range tuned rifle.

Any insights or recollections you might have would be of interest.

Thanks in advance

Frederick303
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