Battle weary No. 4 T

[jmoore]

Rear sight is original and is a 4 clicker (I have yet to come across a 6 click example)

I was thinking that the 6 click per revolution rear sight is part of the 1933 changes. Here's one:









But the question I have is this: What markings (besides the rifle number) are on your scope bracket? Aside from the cap assembly numbers, the only marking on my bracket is a small "M" just above the rear pad cut:

[Surpmil]

That bracket is a very early one I think. I had one with 43 and 44 on the caps, which had a similar degree of fairness to the casting. Interesting that the front ring is a bit narrower than standard. Looks like a capital "I" was struck across the rear set before the caps were cut off. Perhaps to tell which was which before they were stamped with the digits?

I can't help wondering if U.I.C. is not Unicam Instruments Cambridge though.

Both A0507 and A0713 had similar added "T" stamps when I had them.

Mag catch looks Enfield. You're sure the magazine isn't?

The way the "3" is struck on your other rifle suggests the bodies were all made before 1933 and the last digit left blank. Perhaps the same tooling or capacity was needed to make the components as was used on the bodies, so they were all made first and then the tooling changed over for the components; or other things like Bren guns.

Trigger guard looks remarkably free from wear, and almost no dirt or grease around the striker & screw or guard screw(s) so possibly put together fairly recently?

Has that Indian look about it, but no Indian screw. From a service perspective it badly needs a refinish, so if it was assembled in a military workshop, you would expect it to have received one as part of the process.

I'm not saying that to detract from it, as any Trials rifle is a treasure now.

And given the un-staked pad screws, the bible tells us that meant it left UK service in the 40s?

[Lance]

Thanks for the pic's on the 6 clicker, now I have seen one, my other Trials T and SMLE Mk VI both have 4 clickers. The 6 clicker does have the enfield proof stamp on the slide in a different location than the 4 clickers supporting that it was done during a second production run. No other markings on the scope mount anywhere.

I too was worried about the trigger guard as it is pretty compared with the other pieces, it was on the rifle awhile as the forend was a swollen around it making it a bugger to get off. Screws where slightly cleaned by me during disassembey, sorry about that. A museum piece it is not but as you stated it is a Trials so it will fit the bill until that mint matching example comes along....

Thanks again guys!

[jmoore]

I too was worried about the trigger guard as it is pretty compared with the other pieces,

If it's Enfield marked then it really doesn't matter!


For some reason it seems that the loop was removed in the '33 change package. If you look closely, the guard still retains the ends. But the noteworthy feature for our purposes is the tiny Enfield inspector's marking.

[Roger Payne]

In a similar fashion to JM's, my 31 Trials has a 4 clicker & the 33 has a 6 clicker. I would also agree with surpmil's comments re the hand stamping of the final date digit. Incidentally, this is also seen a lot on BSA inter-war SMLE's, suggesting perhaps that business was slack & there was a surplus of components manufactured but perhaps with no orders to justify assembly into complete rifles - at least not immediately. I suspect with the Trials rifles the reasoning would simply be because they were exactly that & so assembly would have been relatively slow; small quantities as required, over a period of time. I will check serials on my UIC scopes to see what I have....