Help with markings on my BSA No4

[Enfield trader]

Not sure what these markings are can anyone enlighten me ....... There is also the same mark on the trigger guard but it is 180 degrees off from these on the receiver .....

Thanks

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[krinko]

The upper mark is the Chinese character "Li", meaning "strength" or "force" and could conceivably be some sort of Chinese proof mark.
The lower mark is either the same "Li" mis-struck without the little vertical bit above the horizontal line, or it is "Tao", meaning "knife".

If they are Japanese versions of Chinese characters----well, I just don't have the strength to fish out the Kanji dictionary tonight.

-----krinko

[Enfield trader]

Do you think it is odd for this to have those markings?

[krinko]

Yes, it is odd.
-----krinko

[Enfield trader]

Good odd or bad odd?

[John Sukey (Deceased)]

Not really that odd. The nationalist chinese were shipped No4 Lee enfields and Bren guns. Supposedly to fight the japs, but they more often fought the communists.
Some of those rifles made it over here. I have a No4 buttstock with chinese characters on it translating to "for instructionsl purpose"

[Thunderbox]

Why aren't the marks simply two English "Rs" that show some sort of inspection?

I've seen these before on rifles, but its not clear what they mean. To me they just look like some sort of FTR inspection marks; probably where the rifle was rebarrrelled and also had new receiver internals - that would give at least two or three inspection stages: headspace, trigger let-off, magazine catch fit, etc.

[krinko]

"R" makes more sense than Chinese----just rotate the head 90 degrees to the right and there they "R".
Thunderbox got it in one.
-----krinko

[englishman_ca]

Is this a Savage made rifle?

[Enfield trader]

It is a BSA No4 and I thought maybe they were R's but the loop does not come completely back to finish off the loop. Rifle is dated 1943 and the barrel is also 1943 dated. Barrel does not carry a serial number.