New No.4 Mk1 owner... what can you tell me about my rifle (pics)

[Brian Dick]

Suncorite 259 was the standard baking paint used in British weapons production or FTR from sometime in 1944 onward unill just a few years ago when it finally became obsolete in MoD service.

Is that the deact proof on the left side of the butt socket?

One of the well known gunsmiths who deacts weapons for a living in Essex is visiting at the end of October. I'm going to put him to work removing the front halves of cut SMLE receivers from almost 400 DP SMLE barrels I have here awaiting export to be built into Deact rifles in the UK! I've already done 80 of them. We're trying to make the shipping as painless as possible by removing the dead weight but it's a lot of work. There is no surface shipping anymore and airfreight is horrendous.

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.

[bigduke6]

Is that the deact proof on the left side of the butt socket?

That's correct Brian, going from memory think its the Birmingham proof, the London proof is just one curved sword (Scimitar I think)

[Alan de Enfield]

That's correct Brian, going from memory think its the Birmingham proof, the London proof is just one curved sword (Scimitar I think)

You are thinking of the "Seax" (ancient Anglo Saxon term for the sword, and from where the name 'Saxon' comes from)

The proof mark is actually an 'armoured arm holding a Seax', and yes - it is one of the London Proof House markings.

[bigduke6]

You are thinking of the "Seax" (ancient Anglo Saxon term for the sword, and from where the name 'Saxon' comes from)

The proof mark is actually an 'armoured arm holding a Seax', and yes - it is one of the London Proof House markings.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...1c5f43f6-1.jpg

The above is proof and Nitro proof marks Alan, not Deact proof marks.

[Beerhunter]

Seeing as we are on my pet subject, that is NOT a Proof mark. It was indeed applied by the Birmingham Proof House but that does not make it a Proof mark.

It is "a mark which has been approved by the Secretary of State" denoting "that a firearm has been rendered incapable of discharging any shot, bullet or other missile, and has consequently ceased to be a firearm". [1997 Firearms (Amendment) Act] That is not Proof which is reserved for the sale of live firearms. (Gun Barrels Proof Act(s).