1942 SAVAGE No4MK1 T....w/telescope

[Seaforth72]

Bros actually brought this No.4 Mk.I (T) rifle from Sudbury Ontario, several thousand kilometres/miles to Richmond, BC, Canada and allowed me to examine it. If he had been selling it, I would have bought it! I congratulate him on a great find.

I too have a Stevens-Savage No.4 Mk.I (T) though mine was converted at Enfield. The rest of my No4 (T) rifles are Long Branch made, but I have owned a number of BSA made H&H conversions as well as a 1931 Trials Rifle that was converted at Enfield.

The set that Bros acquired looks correct in all regards. The chest has the paper label with the matching pencilled serial number. The scope case No.8 Mk.I is matching numbers to both the rifle and scope. The three tiny swastikas do appear to be kill marks. They are very discreet and appear to have been there for a very long time. The seller made no mention of them and apparently was unaware of them. Some snipers did record kills on their rifles, although it was very uncommon. In the memoirs of a German sniper on the Eastern Front, he mentioned how he had recorded his many kills on his rifle. He lent the rifle to another sniper who was later captured. When his body was found ... well, let’s simply say that the Soviets did not appreciate the implication of these markings. I acquired for our regimental museum a Huot Automatic Rifle (full-auto Ross M-10 / Mk.III) prototype Serial Number 2. It was one of two taken overseas to France for testing in combat in the Great War and it has two very distinct notches carved into the butt - apparently kill marks.

As a platoon commander, I did find a swastika carved into an issued Canadian rifle’s butt, but as it was an FN C1A1 in the early 1980s, I determined right away that it was vandalism and let my strong feelings on care of weapons be known to the men of my platoon!