No.4 Mk1 M47C rifle selected for conversion

[Lee Enfield]

I'd completely forgotten about that old thread (not surprising with my memory)! Did the rifle indeed turn out to be a P prefix? If so it would suggest the body was manufactured at the cusp of the year change from 1944 to '45. That is assuming BSA didn't use/re-use available 'old' serial numbers. Can you recall if there might ever have been a '4' or '5' under the '7'? Just wondering if it could have been a standard wartime produced body that for some reason didn't get completed until '47, & then got redated when it was............Interesting either way.

I've only ever seen one post WW2 produced BSA No4 & that was also dated 1947, but had a very late letter prefix serial, either a 'Y' or a 'Z'. Unfortunately, it was years ago & I can't recall any longer which of the two it was. I would have been tempted to buy it out of curiosity, but it was on the table of a leading dealer at an arms fair.......& they had already deactivated it! This example did not appear to have had an earlier date over stamped, & was cleanly marked '1947'.

I suppose if BSA had a market just after the war, wherever that may be, they'd assemble whatever parts they had lying about. Still a puzzle about how the D6E stamp got onto such a late rifle.......maybe wartime manufacture -----> arrived at H&H too late for conversion to be effected -----> somehow ends up back at BSA -----> refurbished as a new rifle for post WW2 sale???

Curious & curiouser!

I can't recall what the serial number ended up being - I can reach out to the fellow who bought it to see...

I'm of the understanding that the 1950's No4Mk2 rifles with no manufacturers markings are probably BSA "commercially manufactured" rifles.