Doomed Long Branch Sniper Reborn

[Seaspriter]

That is an indication that your butt stock was originally fitted to British No4T serial # 39515 as they stamped the rifle serial number protected inside the butt socket and the scope serial in the open.

Thanks LE. Your insight led me to use a very large magnifying glass on the underside of the wrist, where (almost too difficult to spot with the naked eye and too difficult to photograph, but still distinguishable) were the tell-tale marks:
SL
N
74
(Sykes Limited, walnut stock).
So, your assessment is probably quite right -- my guess is the Sniper was damaged in combat, and a new butt (and possibly another scope) fitted to the rifle (or possibly salvaged from another damaged British sniper).

[Lee Enfield]

Thanks LE. Your insight led me to use a very large magnifying glass on the underside of the wrist, where (almost too difficult to spot with the naked eye and too difficult to photograph, but still distinguishable) were the tell-tale marks:
SL
N
74
(Sykes Limited, walnut stock).
So, your assessment is probably quite right -- my guess is the Sniper was damaged in combat, and a new butt (and possibly another scope) fitted to the rifle (or possibly salvaged from another damaged British sniper).

does it have a S51 on the bottom knuckle of the stock?

[Seaspriter]

does it have a S51 on the bottom knuckle of the stock?

Darren, I looked for something that might be a remnant of S51 that might look like this: (taken from another post)



Unfortunately the stock had been scraped at that part of the knuckle when someone varnished the stock years ago; there is no evidence of the H*H marking.

[CINDERS]

Attachment 70841Attachment 70839Attachment 70840Just for the forum few years ago took my just acquired T to the range using the Milsurps 25 yard target to test the reworked draws that I had my stock maker Ken Davis repair.
As a short story this T when I received it from a now ex friend was sold to me in described excellent condition. And he did not miss me on the price either as all up with the postage and a super tough aluminium travel case it well it was extremely expensive for just a rifle.
Its first trip was a disaster as it barely held a 20 moa group at 100m with handloaded ammo on closer inspection and I was at fault just accepting the word of a so called friend the draws were flogged out.
To the extent the whole action rocked backwards and forwards I thought the trigger guard front screw was bottomed out until I took the stock off and behold what a mess.

After the repairs you can see the 3 targets and some interesting results were obtained;

Pic #1 - I had the rifle open sighted on a BR Rocksteady rest with a hard front pad and as can be seen the results were appalling at 25m

Pic #2 - Still open sighted but this time I ditched the rest and used the sling promising result

Pic #3 - Put the scope on it had a quick play the lower 3 shots and then dialed up and fired the 3 shot group very happy.

Later on a friend fired the weapon on a target at 100m and obtained a 3 shot clover leaf group, now I am very happy with that result.

[Peter Laidler]

Re Lee Enfields thread 50. The rifle number stamped into the ledge of the butt was nothing more than a means of ensuring that THAT butt went back on THAT rifle. All the parts from the stripped rifle went into long boxes that were slid onto racks to await the rifle when it came back from the fitting-out shop. The butts used to slip or fall out of the boxes so they'd be numbered individually. There were still loads of these long boxes at the old factory, still with pencilled-on serial numbers on the end. They also used to stamp the rifle number into old ex P'14 butt marking discs and hang them on the box ends.

[mrclark303]

Superb restoration, another Enfield back from the dead.

[Seaspriter]

Doing a little more research: Limpetmine's data base has this gun's sister (only 72 serial number digits difference) with a replacement Sniper Butt as well

1944 71L0297 1*(T) 4 NO SCOPE S51 BUTT WRIST# 17977

Perhaps there is an untold story that snipers in the European Theatre may have taken a rougher beating than we imagine.

In other posts, Peter Laidler and Brian Dick comment on how the front scope bracket pads were loose on many Snipers (despite the screws being soldered and often staked). Roger Payne comments on buying 140 snipers in semi-stripped gutted condition in the early 1990s -- presumably these must have had some damage and were being used as parts guns prior to his acquisition. Others speak of buying used pads from Numrich which had been stripped off Snipers. Still others report scopes selling for $5 in the 1960s.

Just speculating here, but I wonder if, once the Sniper teams in their ghillie suits got into the field of action (having left the No. 15 chests behind the lines), the Sniper rifles were subject to very heavy abuse (crawling around, climbing trees, inside farmhouse attics, etc.), hence a high damage rate (thus high attrition rate). (Certainly most seem to have been separated from their chests).

Of the ~28,000 Snipers produced in the UK and Canada, does anyone know or have a guess about the approximate "survival rate" of the war-time snipers? (We are reasonably clear that the Canadian sniper survival rate of reported guns from war-time production is under 9% and from post war production is about 22%. Based on this limited Canadian data, a post-war Sniper rifle has more than double the likelihood of surviving than a war-time sniper)

[Mayhem]

Awesome work - thanks for sharing.

[CINDERS]

My T is mentioned in Peters book as being in the trials for the front pads working loose thankfully the scope and rifle have remained a married couple to this day and I am glad I own a piece of history that is part of Peter and Ians book scope serial A K & S No. 16684.. Rifle F 38752