My new 1905 B.S.A. No 1 Mk I***

[Son]

There shouldn't be any problem fixing the safety. Ordinary old SMLE MkIII will fit, in fact the safety lever on yours is already a MkIII. The only difference was the way they were marked.
Very nice rifle, mate! Congrats! Thanks for sharing the pics.

BTW, the MkI rifles were never "No1" anything... The No1 rifle tag wasn't brought in until 1926, long after all the Mk1 rifles had been returned to store. In fact, at the same time they were declared obsolete and as they couldn't be on converted to No1 rifle specs economically, they were ordered stripped for parts and scrapped.

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[artyldr01]

There shouldn't be any problem fixing the safety. Ordinary old SMLE MkIII will fit, in fact the safety lever on yours is already a MkIII. The only difference was the way they were marked.
Very nice rifle, mate! Congrats! Thanks for sharing the pics.

BTW, the MkI rifles were never "No1" anything... The No1 rifle tag wasn't brought in until 1926, long after all the Mk1 rifles had been returned to store. In fact, at the same time they were declared obsolete and as they couldn't be on converted to No1 rifle specs economically, they were ordered stripped for parts and scrapped.

Excellent info Son, thank you. So the correct designation is just the ShtLE Mk I? I am pretty amazed at the history of this one. Correct me if I'm wrong but it seems that it likely served in the Great War with a British/Commonwealth unit. Then was transferred to the Irish National Army at the time of the Independence Treaty and subsequent hostilities. At that point or shortly thereafter converted to grenade firing capability and perhaps saw service in WW II? If this is feasible, likely, it is utterly astounding to me and has instantly become my favorite firearm. Mind boggling. And to think the thousands of people waiting in line and getting in my way were looking at modern items with no history whatsoever and paying significantly more.

As for the safety the problem is the rifle will fire with the switch in either position. I also notice much slop in the trigger. I suspect the issue is inside the trigger / safety linkage somewhere. I wasn't sure if that was accessible without unwrapping the wire and removing the forearm.