SSA Peddle Scheme conundrum

[Claven2]

So I bought this 1918 SSA from a few grainy photos. It was a bit of a gamble, the seller was a business, but not a firearms business. Photos weren't great, and getting the guy to describe it to me might as well have been asking my grandma to explain rocket science. I took a gamble, paid more than I should have, and well... what showed up has issues.

To be fair, the rifle was filthy and assembled with the filth still on it, it looked OK and the bore was decent. The guy was iffy on serial number descriptions so I assumed it was mismatched. It turns out the nose cap, sight and bolt are all mismatched. Oh well.

Then I got to disassembling for cleaning... oh boy. This thing is in way rougher shape than I imagined. Thick scaly rust under the woodline, mostly on the barrel and inside the receiver socket. Bore is not that bad, surprisingly. And the bolt does not fully close on a Saami NOGO and does close on GO, with acceptable lug contact, so there is that bit of positive, at least.

So now I need to decide... do I clean this thing up and re-assemble it to have as a representative 1918 SSA? Or do I scavenge all the good parts, scrap the barreled action, and use the rest on a better gun when it comes along? Is a 1918 SSA uncommon enough now to give this one a pardon? I suppose hunting down a better barrel or rear sight base is also an option, but it won't fix the cosmetic pitting on the action. The deepest barrel pitting is out close to the muzzle, so I don't think safety is a real issue... but.... despite being under the woodline, I will always know it's there.

Stock set its a decent bit of late war walnut, so that at least is a bit of silver lining. Even came with an original piling swivel.

What would you guys do?

By the way, receiver got a 1917 BSA barrel and most small parts are 1918 era BSA, but for some reason, the receiver rear ledge has an Enfield acceptance mark over the SSA stamp. I guess Enfield lock would have inspected, gauged and accepted this receiver before it was shipped over to BSA?



serial is R21341.











how the receiver pitting looks with wood on...





Not terrible, but not great. The barrel exterior pitting looks awful, but it would be under the woodline (mercifully).

[Flying10uk]

What would you guys do?

Ask for a partial refund.

[Claven2]

Ask for a partial refund.

I don’t think that will work, and I’m ok with that.

But I do need to decide what to do next with the rifle and/or its parts.

[painter777]

I took a gamble, paid more than I should have

This raises concerns....

[Claven2]

happens to all of us, I suspect!

[Alan de Enfield]

Putting aside the condition - you need to remember that the SSA rifles are 'Bitsas' by design - they were built using the peddled scheme that never worked, and by 1916 SSA were instructed to produce four items; body with charger guide, bolt, bolt head and trigger guard. the remaing parts need were to be taken from the 'rifle pool'.

The peddled scheme was revised in 1916 and became known as the Rifle Components Pool, taking every component which the 'Big Three' could make in excess of their complete rifle production as well as all that Standard Small Arms could turn out, and those produced by the 'peddled scheme' firms. Ordnance could also draw on the pool for repair parts. A considerable stock of components was built up so that any of the Big Three could draw on it if short of some item, and this was done continuously by LSA, and occasionally by BSA, and by Enfield (the pool being on the spot). Standard Small Arms did not attain an output of 2,000 bodies a week until April 1917 and two years after the start of work only 5-6,000 had been produced. By this time SSA were in financial difficulties and a government loan had to be made to keep them going. On June 1st 1918 the factory became National Rifle Factory No.1


So an SSA rifle could have parts from SSA, BSA, LSA or Enfield and still be "All Correct"

[Sapper740]

It's rare enough that I would keep it intact as you bought it to have an example of a Peddled Scheme rifle. Don't know if I'd ever shoot it though.

[Alan de Enfield]

I guess Enfield lock would have inspected, gauged and accepted this receiver before it was shipped over to BSA?

I do not believe that the SSA body parts were shipped to BSA - SSA obtained the BSA parts from the 'rifle pool' (see above post) and assembled their 'bitsas' at SSA / NRF


From the records of the ‘National’ factories :

The National Factory Scheme

In August 1914 the state-owned ordnance factories were providing the Army with about a third of its weapons and at this time there were only sixteen firms tendering for War Office munitions contracts:
WG Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd.
Harper Sons & Bean Ltd.
William Beardmore & Company
Head Wrightson & Co.
Cammell Laird & Company
Kings Norton Metal Co.
Coventry Ordnance Works
The Projectile Co. (1902) Ltd.
Dick Kerr & Company
Rees Roturbo Manufacturing Co.
The Electric & Ordnance Accessories Co.
Vickers Ltd.
T Firth & Sons
J & P Hill
Hadfields Ltd.
Watson Laidlaw & Co.

The first few months of the Ministry’s existence saw the establishment of an imposing group of national factories so that by the end of December 1915, there were 73 new sites. The new factories would be Government property and the armament firms were responsible for the design, construction and to provide managers to run them as agents for the Ministry. These were in addition to the Royal Factories conceded from the War Office at Enfield Lock, Farnborough, Waltham Abbey and Woolwich. By the end of the war, this array of national factories had increased, both in number and in the variety of the products. Over 218 new or adapted factories .(so, for example as the Standard Small Arms factory failed to achieve its targets it was ‘taken over’ by the Government with the old SSA managing it) were in operation and covered not only every kind of munitions, from cannon and aeroplanes to small-arms ammunition, but also centres for the production of ball-bearings and concrete slabs.


Birmingham NRF No.1 (Lench Street)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Farquahar-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.

Birmingham NRF No. 2 (Garrrison Lane)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Fraquahaer-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.

[Alan de Enfield]

no edit option so canot edit post #8

Edit to amend the statement :

I do not believe that the SSA body parts were shipped to BSA - SSA obtained the BSA parts from the 'rifle pool' (see above post) and assembled their 'bitsas' at SSA / NRF

The SSA rifles were assembled in the old bayonet fatory at Enfield (bayonet production having been moved to Wilkinson & Sanderson) using SSA bodies and any other parts from the 'pool'. SSA did not produce or assemble the rifles, they simply supplied, as a 'subcontractor', the 4 components listed.
Which would explain the Enfield inspectors markings



From the records of the ‘National’ factories :

The National Factory Scheme

In August 1914 the state-owned ordnance factories were providing the Army with about a third of its weapons and at this time there were only sixteen firms tendering for War Office munitions contracts:
WG Armstrong Whitworth & Co. Ltd.
Harper Sons & Bean Ltd.
William Beardmore & Company
Head Wrightson & Co.
Cammell Laird & Company
Kings Norton Metal Co.
Coventry Ordnance Works
The Projectile Co. (1902) Ltd.
Dick Kerr & Company
Rees Roturbo Manufacturing Co.
The Electric & Ordnance Accessories Co.
Vickers Ltd.
T Firth & Sons
J & P Hill
Hadfields Ltd.
Watson Laidlaw & Co.

The first few months of the Ministry’s existence saw the establishment of an imposing group of national factories so that by the end of December 1915, there were 73 new sites. The new factories would be Government property and the armament firms were responsible for the design, construction and to provide managers to run them as agents for the Ministry. These were in addition to the Royal Factories conceded from the War Office at Enfield Lock, Farnborough, Waltham Abbey and Woolwich. By the end of the war, this array of national factories had increased, both in number and in the variety of the products. Over 218 new or adapted factories .(so, for example as the Standard Small Arms factory failed to achieve its targets it was ‘taken over’ by the Government with the old SSA managing it) were in operation and covered not only every kind of munitions, from cannon and aeroplanes to small-arms ammunition, but also centres for the production of ball-bearings and concrete slabs.


Birmingham NRF No.1 (Lench Street)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Farquahar-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.

Birmingham NRF No. 2 (Garrrison Lane)

Management: Standard Small Arms Company Ltd. Products: Fraquahaer-Hill automatic rifle. Notes: abandoned in October 1918 before production started.[/QUOTE]