4T on Gunauction

[stencollector]

I agree with vintage hunter: It strikes me as odd is that the engraving on both the receiver and scope bracket are of identical placement and font. Even the first 3 is slightly high on both. Almost as if both were done at the same time and with the same machine. How does one explain that away?

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[limpetmine]

If done during a FTR, quite logical that it would be done at the same time, I would think.

I agree with vintage hunter: It strikes me as odd is that the engraving on both the receiver and scope bracket are of identical placement and font. Even the first 3 is slightly high on both. Almost as if both were done at the same time and with the same machine. How does one explain that away?

[CINDERS]

Can I ask a really dumb question why is England upside down on the Butt socket (may have been a heavy Guinness night), if it was a post WWII rebuild should it not have S-51 on the underside of the butt isn't 47C = BSA Shirley the front band is not stamped either my T (BSA '44) like all your T's out there well there ain't much of it that does not have a stamp or pencil mark on it.

By the way jump onto usedguns.com.au and check out a shorty Mk III for almost 9K and a HT for 11.5K from the Northern Territory now that is getting up there $ wise.

[Peter Laidler]

The REAL check is this........... Collimate the grat to the mechanical axis of the tube, set range and azimuth to zero (or 1 for range) replace in the bracket and put on rifle. Both grat point and mechanical axis of bore should collimate at 100 yards. That's a true check that they were done by an expert, probably at H&H and not some back street bodger years later

[Lance]

The markings seem legit as its brother is out there with the same engraving and finish style. It was offered up for auction a few years ago, unfortunately the seller did not post any photo's of the wood markings.

Both have a number stamped into the bolt chanel on the receiver. Maybe they were a foreign contract order or advanced small arms training projects??

[Peter Laidler]

That bodyside marking looks like an electric pencil, what we called a 'fuzzy-pen' held in a sort of pantograph frame. I only ever saw a couple but they weren't really much good unless the donor surface was dead flat because if you touched the surface with the fuzzy pen it stuck. A bit like arc welding except that in my arc welding world the rod was constantly stuck to the work. But to the point, it looks like the fuzzy pen has stuck to the bracket and rifle (see Q on rifle and 6 on bracket).

I wouldn't mind betting that post war, the rifle has been bead blasted and linished clean, hence the absence of the TR and other odd markings which seem to litter that area of the body (and note the cleaning right up into the lower parts of the 1945 date), refinished in the commercial world and sold/exported to some foreign govt buyer. Westley Richards were into this big time and their speciality was Bren guns where they did thousands upon thousands and it was they who developed a bracket to convert Mk1 drum sight guns to accept Mk2 leaf backsights. And .50 BRownings too

Asa they say at John Lewis or Marks and Spencer (two large UK high quality department stores) 'buy with confidence'

[Roger Payne]

Hi Lance. Does Q39655 bear a cheekpiece? If so, is it of the style of the one shown on the auction rifle, or more 'typical'? The wood on the auction rifle is superb, but even so shows a few odd minor dings & handling marks - yet the 'piece is perfect. I'm pretty sure the barrelled action is genuine but I doubt that walnut cheekpiece has been on there ever since 1945. Peter's explanation of a run of production rifle, linished, but then commercially blued (rather than phossed & blacked) for re-sale to a friendly government sounds very feasible to me. Possibly with some replacement parts being fitted then???

ATB.

[Brian Dick]

The cheekpiece caught my attention too. Plus the fact that it isn't finished or marked like a typical 1945 BSA/H&H rifle. Note there is no "S-51" on the underside of the buttstock either. Strange but nice looking rifle. Sold originally by Klines in Chicago after import.

[Lance]

Greetings Roger

Sorry, no pic's of the cheek piece for Q39655 in my file, all I had of her I listed above.