1945 No4T Help.

[PScott]

Hi , my first post here is a a question please..
I have the opportunity to purchase a 1945 No4t, could someone please advise as to why the original numbers have been stamped out and a new set re stamped? See pic..

Thanks..

Information

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[jmoore]

That's an odd one. The bolt is typical for a replacement, but why would the butt socket would be remarked with a slightly different number? I seem to remember having been shown something like that before, but I can't place it. The "x's" are odd anyway. Usually old numbers were just "lined out".

[Thunderbox]

Rifle matched to a scope?

[PScott]

No Scope is not numbered to the rifle.

[Peter Laidler]

It just looks to me as though the the actual number and letter stamps are of the identical type and I wouldn't mind betting that if you looked under a microscope or powerful eye glass, that the letter N or numbers 3,5 and 5 for example would be identical stamps, done at the same time, presumably at BSA. As for the last two obliterated numbers, well I can't read them but I wouldn't mind betting (?) that they have been stamped back to front and then overstamped the right way round - which has messed them up - so the number has been barred out and re-numbered - correctly this time as N 3753?

I haven't encountered this before and even if we did at our level, I personally would dolly the old number out or barr it through properly. No doubt when it went through the big workshops it'd be re-engraved anyway

As for the bolt number, then so long as the bolt fits PROPERLY, is set upcorrectly and is square on to the chamber that's all that matters. We had a tray of 50 or 60 bolts that we'd select first if a bolt needed changing or was defective so a change of bolt and re-number was just run of the mill for us.

Anyway, that's my take on the matter for what it's worth

Added later....... As for the scope and bracket, well, contrary to popular belief, it's the bracket that's matched to the rifle and not the scope. Just so long as you mate the bracket to the rifle pads after collimating the optical axis if the scope to the mechanical axis bracket cradles and on and on, then you should be OK. Not simple and the first glaring obvious feature that a No4T is a mix and match if it's wrong of course!

[RobD]

Can we see detailed pics of the numbers?
Looks like Peter Laidler has the answer - the original no. looks like 037559 (or similar) and the new no. N37559 (or similar)

[PScott]

The original number is .......037569 the re stamped number is ... N37539

[Surpmil]

Looks to me like the original stamping was O37566 and the restamping was N37539.

Hard to say why that might have happened. Could be as simple as someone who was hung over and not paying attention.

Must have been rather mind numbing to have spend your days stamping numbers onto butt sockets with individual hand stamps.

Why didn't they use a roller stamp?

[Thunderbox]

If the scope had been matched to the rifle, I'd have said it was simply a recent "match up". A prefix and two digits difference is the sort of thing that, statistically speaking, you come across quite often in 4(T) rifles, scopes, brackets. Looking through my list of former 4(T) kit, i can see about three or four occurrences where at least three digits of the number were the same on unmatched items.