The evidence I have comes from an examination of the individual rifles examined in the 889 US import lot that was obtained from Ireland in 1991 by Century arms. That was how many Century arms got from Ireland in that lot, or so the evidence indicates.
The serial range of the rifles ranges from AM 544 to AM 1534, or 990 serial range. The early rifles seem to have been ex RAF rifles that were sold to Ireland sometime around 1948, all converted by P-H before April of 1945. Around 1950/51 (the Birmingham proofs date marks spans middle of year to middle of year), a quantity of worn out SMLE Irish rifles were sent to Parker Hale for conversion. You see rifles with conversion proofs up to around 1953.
The way you can tell they came out of Irish stocks is the old serial number of the Irish SMLE on the barrel knox, which was not overwritten. The action body had the old serial ground off and what would appear to be a continuing AM 3 digit or 4 digit serial number applied .
Also you should see, it the rifle is in its original stock, a small FF mark in a circle on the underside of the stock, just foreword of the front action screw. It is a small mark and only appears on rifles that were sent back to the
UK
for a barrel conversion.
if you are interested in how to know the old F18184 serial on the barrel is Irish, check out this thread on the topic, see post # 20
Fritz's FF marked Enfield sticky
So the likely history of your rifle is:
1916 Made at BSA
1921 to 1923 remarked at Enfield lock, sent to Ireland as part of the 27,400 SMLE rifles supplied to the free state.
sometime in 195, sent over to PH for conversion to .22 configuration.
Now when it was sold out of service, well it does not have the typical Century import mark seen on these rifles in the US, so if it was part of the 1991 export lot or the Irish separately sold 100 of the rifles to a European vendor, well no idea.
Hopes that helps. Your rifle is now in the Irish .22 conversion data base, which as 61 rifles in the range from AM544 to AM 1534
Originally Posted by Frederick303
The evidence I have comes from an examination of the individual rifles examined in the 889 US import lot that was obtained from Ireland in 1991 by Century arms. That was how many Century arms got from Ireland in that lot, or so the evidence indicates.
PM
