Quote Originally Posted by spinecracker View Post
43,344? I didn't think that BSA would have been able to FTR so many rifles in 1 year. I did find a reference that stated "(p)roduction ceased at BSA-Shirley in the late 1940s, and in the mid-1950s the rifle fabrication machinery was sold to the Pakistan Ordnance Factory in Wah", so what kind of dent would this have put in BSA's ability to FTR No.4 Mk.1s to Mk.1/2 and Mk.1/3 configuration, especially as they were apparently replacing multiple parts, including the barrels? My mind is boggled.
They probably weren't manufacturing new receivers, barrels or other parts, so didn't need the full production machinery. At that time there must have been millions of existing spares available from MoD stores or from the trade, plus BSAs own stocks, plus access to the dozens of sub-contractors in the gun trade. BSA had something like a dozen plants just in the Birmingham area, plus a very large WW2 workforce to hand. I imagine the FTRs were a welcome use of spare capacity in the depressed 1950s....
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