Quote Originally Posted by Peter Laidlericon View Post
Has anyone considered a sub calibre insert along the lines of the barrel insert and bolt? I was thinking of something along the lines of the old sub cal adaptor used in the FN FAL/L1A1 rifle

Hey, now that would be an interesting addition to my SAF target rifle! I wonder who I'd have to kill to get one of those!

Something that hasn't been said here about the trainers... When WW1 broke out, there was a perceived shortage of trainers so the W^D contracted out the conversion of older models and previously converted rifles to .22 calibre. Contracting the work achieved several things, firstly so as not to tie up RSAF and major military contractors production lines at a time when they were trying to meet increased demands for front line weapons. It also helped keep a few firms afloat as some were already in financial trouble in 1915- Westley Richards for one was on the brink of closure (documented on their website). It also ended up with some companies, AJ Parker and later Parker Hale (not the same group- there were a couple of "divisions" in the Parker family in the trade which had gone their seperate ways by this time- details available through google) thriving on converting and modifying rifles for various target shooting groups.
There were no purpose built .22 trainers untill much later on as demostrated earlier in the thread. Although the amount and type of markings varied a lot, a rifle with a 1916 build date and marked No2 MkIV would have been a much later conversion, possibly as late as the 1950's (working from memory here, please correct me if I stuff it up!)