1943 Maltby Sniper

[Roger Payne]

Hi giove. Can you get some more photo's of the body pad area without the scope & bracket? First impression is that it is wrong. The scope & bracket look fine, & it is certainly a 1943 Maltby rifle, but is it a WW2 H&H conversion? I doubt it, but as mentioned more pix would be nice. The four digit cradle cap numbering is unusual. Never seen more than three digits on a genuine UK bracket. Could this be one of the Italian set up rifles?

Going by past experience, one smells a furry rodent as soon as Maltby & any date other than 1941 crops up. Having said that, only a matter of weeks ago somebody sent me photo's of a Maltby 1942 which I believe to be genuine, but it is the only one I've come across in all of the years that I've been collecting. I believe the explanation is quite logical, in that early on H&H were taking all rifles that met the accuracy standards for conversion to 4T, regardless of the originating factory, but at some point in 1942 (speaking from memory now so if someone has a precise date please chip in) it was decided to convert all rifles specifically & only from BSA Shirley. Consequently, you can almost take it as read that a 43 or 44 Maltby will be a fake, or at least, a 4T not set up within the British Commonwealth production system during WW2.

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