A little back ground first......my first hunting rifle was my .303 given to me by my father when I was 14 and it was given to him by his father. My grandfather tried to "sporterize" it...he cut about 12 inches of the wood off of the front of the gun. I recently found the nose cap and the bayonet (which is also tried to turn into a hunting knife...looks like he ground it down ot make it shorter). About 8 years ago, I sanded down the wood to bring out the original colour and it is beech. This is when I noticed the stamping in the butt (S-arrow-A). I was told by someone that is meant South Africa and never really thought about it since. Recently, the gun has been sparking my interest..."where did it come from?" and "Who carried it and had it seen any action?" are all questions that began running through my mind. Over the last couple weeks, I have discovered that the stamp indicates Post Independance India. There is also an 'S' stamped in the wood behind the trigger guard possibly indicating a Shortened Butt. The GRI stamp also indicates that the rifle was manufactured in Ishapore. All of the serial numbers are matching, including on the rear sight which is guaged from 200-2000 yrds. It is a No.1 Mk III but the date stamp is 1944....from what I have been reading, No. 1 Mk III's were "obsolete" because of the production of the No.4 Mk 1.....is this true? All of the No.1 Mk III's I have seen online seem to be pre-WW2 (or maybe I haven't been looking hard enough). Also, how would a 303 from India make its way to my grandfather is little Sutton, ON Canadaicon? I would someday like to restore it back to it's original condition.
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