Savage Lee Enfield not lend lease

[Peter Laidler]

Any idea who/which nation linished the US PROPERTY markings Brian? I ask because some of the Chinese stuff supplied to the VC was also cleaned of US and Canadian markings. Not very well I should add and by no means all of it. The strange thing is that there were many Inglis No1 pistols and these were pretty well intact.

Back to the dispsosal of US Lend Lease vehicles. I know a person locally, very old now, but he used to buy up some of the US lend lease stuff in the 50's and was able to sell it to the newly emerging Western Armies, specially Italy and Greece who were big buyers and good payers. A lot was only fit for spares but they needed spares too. But strangely, he never bought those DUKW thinggies or any other US amphibians because they were barred from export sale to virtually anyone. Maybe Uncle Sam was fearful of an invasion!

[Chris7171]

Hi, Just to throw one in there I have a Savage that is not marked "US PROPERTY" and does not have the flaming bomb but "P" proof marks, the sieral number is 51C range, the rifle is NZD marked and I have converted it to a sniper, I will try to post some pictures.

[enfield303t]

Hi, Just to throw one in there I have a Savage that is not marked "US PROPERTY" and does not have the flaming bomb but "P" proof marks, the sieral number is 51C range, the rifle is NZD marked and I have converted it to a sniper, I will try to post some pictures.

Chris I really look forward to the pictures, my serial number is in the mid 30's

[Brian Dick]

I think they were linished clean by many different nations that had them. Some are done so nicely you'd think it was never there and others a bit on the rough side with a big bastard file. I've got a lunchbox Savage here with a four digit serial number stamped on individually as imported from Canada several years ago and the U.S. Property is present on it too. Unless one was pilfered from the factory in pieces prior to stamping, I'd still put my money on the fact that they were all marked. Of course, never say never and I'm no exspurt. I've just seen a s--t load of 'em!

[Tymber]

With 1.2million rifles made , add the human factor , there's going to be some that were passed by.
This is a dated '43 with no stamp.
...not scrubbed

[JBS]

12C 1942 #4 MkI is stamped "US PROPERTY"



Looking at the S #4 MkI* receiver above it looks way to smooth compared to other Savage receivers I have seen ?

[Peter Laidler]

From the rest of this thread Tymber and my limited experience, I'd like to get a hold of yours with a micrometer. You can bet that it has been 'cleaned'

[tlvaughn]

This is a dated '43 with no stamp.

I was actually going to start a new thread before this pic was posted, but this is now the 2nd 1943 dated Savage I have seen were the date is stamped on the left side of the receiver. Every 1943 dated rifle I have seen up until now was stamped on the butt socket.

[jona]

Any idea who/which nation linished the US PROPERTY markings Brian? I ask because some of the Chinese stuff supplied to the VC was also cleaned of US and Canadian markings. Not very well I should add and by no means all of it. The strange thing is that there were many Inglis No1 pistols and these were pretty well intact.

Back to the dispsosal of US Lend Lease vehicles. I know a person locally, very old now, but he used to buy up some of the US lend lease stuff in the 50's and was able to sell it to the newly emerging Western Armies, specially Italy and Greece who were big buyers and good payers. A lot was only fit for spares but they needed spares too. But strangely, he never bought those DUKW thinggies or any other US amphibians because they were barred from export sale to virtually anyone. Maybe Uncle Sam was fearful of an invasion!

A friend of mine is a retired armourer from the Royal Engineers. According to him, their Colonel ordered the armourers to get rid of "that damned US PROPERTY mark"(he felt they are not lent, but well and truly PAID for) on the No. 4s. So they were set up in a mill and "thousands" of the Savages were cleaned up and made "presentable."

[Thunderbox]

A friend of mine is a retired armourer from the Royal Engineers. According to him, their Colonel ordered the armourers to get rid of "that damned US PROPERTY mark"(he felt they are not lent, but well and truly PAID for) on the No. 4s. So they were set up in a mill and "thousands" of the Savages were cleaned up and made "presentable."

Thats a bit of an apocryphal story, with the Colonel's unit varying with the telling (I've heard Guards, Light Infantry, Royal Artillery, and a few others!). However its unlikely that any unit CO would have the authority or the facilities to start making structural alterations to issue service rifles - that would be a depot job arising from a War Office instruction of some sort. I imagine quite a lot were linished in the civilian trade, as they were often keen to emphasise that rifles were legitimately sold out of service.