I stripped off the paint on a 2/A I had many years ago, the parkerising underneath was really good, so left it that way, it was one of many rifles that went to the auction a few years ago, nearly every thread was butchered or none existing which soon become apparent when it was stripped. The previous owner never had any luck with it on the range, I never put standard ammo through it, but did use my downloaded ammo, using a round nose M1icon carbine bullet, it was excellent......

My theory on Indian paint was the good stuff was used on personal stuff at home , gates, pushbike etc and was replaced with cheap stuff.