Parker Hale M85 Serial Number Checks & Provenance on Manufacture (Records)

[Gil Boyd]

Lee Enfield,
As per my PM response, and for the benefit of others interested, It does sit within the parameters of the CANADIAN C3A1 CONTRACT serial numbers, but after speaking to Bill Smallwood ex engineer at Parker Hale who was involved during this time of refurbishment at the factory, that some rifles were produced not marked C3A1 or given the new serial number ending in G and sold to dealers in the UK, so they still retained their R prefix as an M82 like we have in this example found by mforow.

Frustrating as hell for staff who could see the writing on the wall.

Just to clarify, I do hold all the serial numbers of the new G suffix at the end of the new C3A1 numbers, and it is a real shame there was no recording of the previous serial number before refurbishment so you could cross corrolate for histories sake.

As been said many times, if you hold an M82 as stamped, it is in effect Parker Hales successful sniping rifle which had a 1200TX heavy duty barrel fitted to it and duly modified on refurbishment for the Canadian Forces C3A1 contract, making it an awesome competitor out there at the time before the floating barrel was explored and found to be even more accurate.
It is sad the rifle mforow has found doesn't have the C3A1 stamp on it, but it probably went through the system before it was hoiked out of the pile for a UK dealer sale, who was a consistant buyer of PH rifles here!!