Current UK weapons serial numbering system

[Longshaor]

Got a general question about the way the Brits serial their small arms.

Just as a working example lets use my L1A1:

UB 58 A5483

If I'm understanding correctly, the first letter (U) is the country of origin, in this case the UK. The second (B) is the manufacturer, Birmingham Small Arms. The two numbers are the year of manufacture, here 1958. The last 5 are the actual rifle serial with the "A" prefix meaning it was in the first 10,000 produced that year, to be followed by "B" for the next 10,000, etc. Is that correct?

If so, is there a master list of country & manufacturer codes somewhere that's accessable to the public? For instance, what would a firearm made by Colt be prefixed?

Thanks in advance!

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

If we (the UK Military) import weapons we usually tell the manufacturer that we want a specisl serial number range such as Browning pistols from Belgium that go BL88A12345 and so on However, they still keep their OWN serial number on them too! More recently they just do what they want as we have no real control over what they do! Some, such as the LMT marksman rifle have another type of number.

We import Colt made rifles but.................. You'll have to ask Colt for the details I'm afraid!

[Brit plumber]

The last 5 are the actual rifle serial with the "A" prefix meaning it was in the first 10,000 produced that year, to be followed by "B" for the next 10,000, etc. Is that correct?

Thanks in advance!

I don't know if it was the intension to do it that way but thats not how it happened. I have a 1960 BSA and its A19xxx. The numbers never reset back to A1 at the begining of every year nor did they start back at a new letter every year. For example, I know of a L4 with the serial number UE 76 A20517 and the previous number to that I've recorded is UE75 A20444.

[Longshaor]

Thanks guys! Does anyone know if there was a country designation for the US? IIRC, there were a limited number of US-made M79 grenade launchers in service during the Falklands, for example.

[Peter Laidler]

I asked the SASC Major, Chris XXXXX who allocated/oversaw the serial number allocation to UK and UK acquired kit and he told me that it was all to do with the ambiguous wording.

It read as though the prefix letter would change IF the production exceeded 10,000 in the year - regardless of what the sequential number had reached. However, it was always interpreted that the prefix letter would roll over from A to B when TOTAL production 'according to serial number' reached 99,999.
To be honest, I don't understand it either because on that basis, there would be THREE interpretations of it! For example, now we have rifles in the UN XX A-300,000 range already.