Bask in the glory :lol:

[Homer]

No not all early lithgows have evidence of being issued to the states. I've had lithgows that were void of Military district stamps and issue dates in the butt. No question of wood being original.

[afpatriot]

AFPATRIOT
Your rifle is a run of the mill one some have lots of stamps if they have had a hard life others no. The 3MD is Victoria. The numbers other than the serial on the action and barrel which also match are inventory numbers for the MDs. There maybe several if the rifle was returned for a rebuild or went to another MD. The butt will have date stamps showing the return to store.

Thanks for the information, I am new to these. The butt has 5/18 and 5/44. It also has a serial number but it doesn't match the rest, or is that an inventory number?

[muffett.2008]

Attachment 50224Attachment 50225

[RobD]

Mr E,
Your Westley Richards Martini with U stamp is ex-S Africa. Any ZAR stamps on it?
The rifle is probably a commercial sale to a burgher, or else a govt sale - a "£4 Martini" - that is, sold for £4 by the govt. of the Boer republics to citizens in the years leading up to the Anglo Boer War. The govt. sales tend to be marked ZAR somewhere on the receiver, but this is by no means the rule.
The U markings abound on S African Martinis from from the ABW, indicating that they were taken into the govt. strategic reserve after 1910 - probably during either WW1 or WW2 - it is not clear to me exactly when this happened. There was greater external threat during WW2, but greater threat of civil war during WW1.

[ActionYobbo]

Mr E,
Your Westley Richards Martini with U stamp is ex-S Africa. Any ZAR stamps on it?
The rifle is probably a commercial sale to a burgher, or else a govt sale - a "£4 Martini" - that is, sold for £4 by the govt. of the Boer republics to citizens in the years leading up to the Anglo Boer War. The govt. sales tend to be marked ZAR somewhere on the receiver, but this is by no means the rule.
.

the only markings on this gun are the serial number on the barrel and action. Inspector marks with the number 73 and the makers name and a triangle on the barrel
the rifle is in excellent condition and I shoot it when I have the ammo. when I first got it the cleaning rod was missing. I had to clean red dirt out of the channel and hole in the wood to fit the cleaning rod. overall it looks like it was carried little and used even less.


I went right over the 1920 Lithgow rifle and its all matching. finish is blued. wood has been lightly sanded and varnished. there is no hint of any markings on the wood. if it is replacement wood then its correct to the time period unmarked wood that was used to restock this rifle.

[user1]

I would be really happy to just play with the ones in the front row, very nice collection