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1917 SSA With SSA Barrel?
I recently picked up a cosmo blob that resembled a rifle. I started cleaning it up and found a nice 1917 SSA with original 1917 barrel. On the bottom of the barrel is stamped SSA. I was under the impression that SSA didn't make barrels only bolts and receivers. Is my limited knowledge wrong?
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11-05-2011 04:53 PM
# ADS
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Hi
Alan de Enfield wrote a very good summary about Standard Small Arms (which is available in the archives). His post states that the SSA factory was instructed to produce four items; body with charger guide, bolt, bolt head and trigger guard.
I have a 1917 dated SSA too and the barrel is stamped the same as yours. However, the inspection stamps on it are all BSA (italic B), so I assumed a BSA made barrel that had been assembled perhaps by SSA. My rifle also has a SSA stamped trigger guard - which is what first drew me to it, for a closer look, when I saw it standing in a 'for sale' rack.
Mike
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So, what are we saying here--does this mean that Standard Small Arms were doing the breeching up then sending the barrelled receivers on for final assembly into complete rifles at BSA or RSAF Enfield, viz stocking up, regulation of sights, etc? Interestingly, I am given to understand RSAF Enfield did exactly the same thing to expedite SMLE III/III* Dispersal production during WWII. So there would seem to be a precedent for such production pioneered during WWI under the Peddle Scheme. I have always been given to understand that SSA sent the finished receivers to either RSAF or BSA. It had never occured to me that SSA was sending barrelled actions! Makes sense when you think about it! My 1916 SSA III has a '16 dated LSA made barrel with Peddle scheme maker rear sight base but all other components are RSAF Enfield manufacture including the stocks and the rifle received its final inspection at RSAF. I have no 'SSA' marking on the bottom of my barrel, however.
Thank you for an interesting thread. I find the Peddle Scheme SMLE's a source of endless fascination.
Last edited by barbarossa; 11-05-2011 at 10:17 PM.
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Standard Small Arms was formed by Mr S J Waring (later Lord Waring, 1860-1940) of the Waring & Gillow concern ,together with a Mr Peterson, who was a man of standing in the Birmingham gun trade. They believed that the skills of the Birmingham gun trade were being neglected and could be more fully utilised in the war effort than they were. They planned to make all of the action and the nosecap, less magazines, screws and pins, and organise eight small firms and a number of individuals in the trade (probably outworkers, of whom a great many worked in the trade at that time). The barrels were to be subcontracted to Westley Richards and the wood to be cut by Waring & Gillow and Rudders & Payne (both these firms eventually dropped out). They contracted to supply rifles at 75/- each, which was the same price that BSA was paid. After a year or so it became apparent that the factory would never produce complete arms and it was instructed to produce four items; body with charger guide, bolt, bolt head and trigger guard. The company was to produce 1500 sets of components a week, rising to 4,000 when new machinery was installed. Other firms were contracted to produce less specialist items, the sets of components being delivered to Enfield for assembly in the bayonet shop, production of which was shifted to Wilkinsons and Sanderson Brothers & Newbold.
The downside of this scheme was that it only allowed for the exact number of components needed. Thus assembly of rifles was held up for want of quite minor items which inexperienced firms were struggling to produce. The 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 with Mr Peterson as superintendent and instructed to prepare for manufacture of components of the Farquhar-Hill automatic rifle, although NRF-marked SMLE bodies were made after this. SSA seem to have turned out 2,000-4,000 bodies a week, depending on the Ministry of Munitions' requirements at the time.
Mine are not the best, but they are not too bad. I can think of lots of Enfields I'd rather have but instead of constantly striving for more, sometimes it's good to be satisfied with what one has...
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Thank You to Alan de Enfield For This Useful Post:
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