SER# LEGIT?

[TOM421]

Strikes me as an addon, oppinions.


Attachment 82374

Information

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[Brian Dick]

It's looks to have been re-engraved. Many 1943 BSA No.4T rifles had the serial numbers very lightly engraved as original and as soon as they got a post war refinish, the number was easily polished or blasted away and would need be put back on. Most that I've seen were stamped but I guess it would be engraved if the facility had an engraver. What are the serial numbers on the bolt and forend? Do they match? It strikes me as an Indian, (RFI), rework being blued but I can't be sure. British owned rifles would be phosphate and baked Suncorite paint finish.

---------- Post added at 12:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:30 PM ----------

I should add phosphate and paint after post war FTR.

[limpetmine]

Looks to have been ground, as well.

[Roger Payne]

It would be nice to see more photo's to assess the fit of the pads & the general look of the receiver as a whole, but even from what we can see I'm pretty sure I'm with Brian. And certainly, an AS prefixed serial number would be perfectly correct for a 1943 BSA rifle. It's likely a genuine but refurbished 4T. As Brian says, it's just unclear who undertook the refurb.

[browningautorifle]

Yup, looks to have been ground off and engraved after the fact. Could have been a couple different reasons.

[Peter Laidler]

As someone who has over engraved or re-stamped a lost or unclear serial number about a zillion times in the past on a zillion types of kit, ranging from Fazakerley Stens to riflees and bolts and magazines to Kershaw binoculars I'd say that this is what's been done here. If you were at a workshop with an engraving facility handy (called the A&G section) then you'd use it. If you're going to re-engrave, then you should linish clean first

[Warren]

Standard procedure for the lot of Lee Enfields that came in to the USA from India about 8 to 10 years ago.
ALL were renumbered that same way.
Both the receiver and bolt handle were so re- numbered.
A larger font that original on both butt socket and bolt handle however you will find the original number on the barrel was not redone.

[browningautorifle]

If you're going to re-engrave, then you should linish clean first

Is that to leave the visual evidence of the original serial number? Struck but still present?

[Surpmil]

The irony is that having removed a stamped SN they have replaced with a much shallower, albeit probably somewhere neater, electro-pencilled SN, which will vanish under one or two good sand-blastings. Quite apart from the fact that stamped numbers disrupt the structure of the metal in ways that often allows even ground off numbers to be detected by forensic labs, whereas electro-pencilled numbers do no such thing and are completely gone when erased.

[Peter Laidler]

That is definitely an engraved serial number and you can see the actual depth from the shadow in the figure 4. Not deep but it would survive our bead blasting process. The electric pencil or fuzzy or scratchy pen as we used to call it is a different beast altogether. Even at its highest amp setting it was hardly legible!