No 4 Receiver question

[Surpmil]

Personally I'd see that flat on the left wall as possibly a control surface created for either locating the receivers in a jig or jigs, or a surface created for clamping purposes, presumably in a jig.

There was never much enthusiasm for sniping or scoped rifles IMHO from the low priority apparently accorded them, even after the loss of perhaps thousands of No.3 snipers in France in 1940.

After all, if it was a flat for scope mount purposes it was a failure as RSAF(E) and H&H both had to mill off the mating surface, aka "seat" for the front pads.

[Roger Payne]

I was just speculating; as you say, the flat may indeed just as easily be to facilitate machining the body during the production process. I wonder why three factories adopted it but the other two didn't........?

We may have lost a quantity of No3 T's in the Fall of France, but not literally thousands, as there were only about two thousand set up.

[Surpmil]

Thanks Roger, I'll stand corrected on the No.3 Mk.I(T) losses up to Dunkirk then - do we have a precise number of those setup - can't recall now if this was in TBS?
If so, then perhaps by deducting from that what was reported in the 1943 inventory of sniping rifles, we could come up with a pretty close number of losses to that point from all causes?
I considered checking that inventory when posting, but didn't feel like bothering - hence my "perhaps"

[Roger Payne]

I'm pretty sure it is indeed in TBS but I can't be absolutely sure of the exact total without looking & I'd have to get off the settee to do that.......!

2001 maybe???

I didn't appreciate until fairly recently that not all of the Irish contract rifles were set up by BSA in the '30's........most were but there was a shortfall made up with rifles from UK stores.

[Surpmil]

Curiosity slightly aroused, I just had a look and you are correct that 2001 is the figure given in TBS.

What was the shortfall due to? I'd guess they ran out of scopes, but had a close enough relationship to the WD that a deal was made to obtain what was needed?

PPCo. who built the Patt.18 scopes was long gone by the 30s and probably Aldis Bros. ended up with the leftovers when PPCo. was closed down.

So presumably Aldis wasn't interested in making up Patt.18 scopes, but then they showed very little interest in rifle scopes at all judging by their response to Col. Acland and that cobbled-up clunker they offered for sale in the 30s and 40s to the sporting market.