Question on early No. 4 "T" Enfield conversions accuracy.

[Surpmil]

Did the number of 1403 trials rifles converted to "T" specs represent a discernable scale of issue in relation to the number of battalions in existence? Or, did it represent all the trials rifles made, or only a portion of those? There are some examples known that were not converted after all.

If it represents only part of those known to have been on hand (and presumably unissued at that date), then one might conclude that there was some form of accuracy test and that some rifles did not pass; or that the number 1403 was chosen for some specific reason related to scale of issue or...?

It would hardly have made sense to go to the trouble of converting them and then to find out when doing the final zeroing that some would not group adequately and had to be either 'remediated' or returned to standard No4 specs.

On the other hand, the press of work at that date may have led to there being no final zeroing tests at all and the rifles being left up to the end user to zero(?)

Or of course, the rifles may have already been tested before the outbreak of war to a standard that was considered adequate for conversion and therefore there was no need for further testing beyond post-conversion zeroing.

Presumably those rifles that went out on troop trials before the war were inspected and refurbished after the trials were over, and the trials probably did not include firing more than a few hundred rounds from each rifle anyway(?)

I regret to say I never fired either of my trials "T"s so can't comment, but I recall reading that they were effectively "hand-built" rifles and naturally would have been made to as high a standard as possible in order that the design might be fairly tested without manufacturing standards affecting the results.

Just throwing some guesses out there...