No 8 Rifle

[Thunderbox]

I've got "W4" at the moment. Story that I hear passed around (was it repeated on this forum?) is that these were built at Woolwich.


My rifle is a rather crude rebuild, so most of the provenance is lost. The butt socket carries "F50/ CR324", but in a different font/age to the sidewall engraving.

It seemed to me that perhaps these No8s were built by someone in the civilian from No5 receivers. However there is no trace of a previous set of markings, and the "W4", whilst suspiciously "clean" compared to the stamped butt socket marks, does appear to be electro-pencilled rather than engraved.