Help Identify this Number 4 Mk. 2

[Maxwell Smart]

BSA FTR

Information

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[davidwrankin]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry about not replying sooner, been fighting a stomach virus (fortunately NOT the beer-named virus...) for the last few days.

You might want to unblock the gas release hole, as seen in the first photo.

Sorry, pictures are from a week or two back, wasn't done cleaning it then. It's open now. Thanks for the warning.

BSA FTR

Could this be an FTR to mk2 spec trigger? The side of the receiver appears to have been machined to remove markings at the front lefthand side.

It has all the looks of a post war BSA FTR. It wouldn't have been a Mk.2, but rather a Mk.1/2 or 1/3. Someone other than the arsenal put those marks on it. In photo 3, you can see the remnants of the electro penciled " F.T.R. 19...53 most likely. These are signature BSA FTR markings.

I thought I had a clear picture of the right side of the receiver, but I didn't put it in (no remains of interesting markings, basically blank). It's got the push-button bolt release, so it's not a 1/3.

Is there an easy way to identify the difference between a Mk 1/2 receiver and a Mk 2 receiver? Looking closer, picture 4 has a decent shot at the left side of the trigger pin and picture 9 has a picture of the right side of the trigger pin. As you can see, it's been re-blacked, so it's hard to tell what materials are involved. If I can do an easy test (that's not too destructive on the finish) to determine materials, I don't mind doing so.

Can we trust the serial number to be a factory number? So far, I'm only seeing 2 manufacturers who used Axxxx as a standalone range. One is the POF for their parts guns, but Axxxx appears to be a 1952 range, so that doesn't seem to fit. If Axxxx is a BSA Shirley number, then that would point to my rifle as being an early Shirley Mk.1 that was then converted (probably in 53) to a 1/2.

Still leaves how the markings got stripped (and the gun re-blacked) and how the rifle got to Ethiopia a mystery. I'm leaning towards a Pakistan -> India -> Ethiopia path myself, but did India ever strip No. 4 markings and then not come back and remark them themselves?

Can we learn anything from the "No. 4 Mk 2" label? It looks hand-lettered to me, but if it matches some other known agents' stamps, that would be interesting.

Thanks,
David