Alright, what have I got, LB question

[limpetmine]

When a rifle receiver was damaged beyond repair, it was often replaced with another reciever, and renumbered with the origional number. There are more than a handful of examples of this around. This might explain what you saw.....

The rifle may have been made up from unumbered replacement parts, who knows how it got that serial No! Maybe an armourer made it up for himself?
I have seen Savage manufactured rifles in NZ with Longbranch serial No`s, obviously made up with what ever parts were at hand!

[Peter Laidler]

Not in New Zealand it wasn't Limpet! Nor in Australia or Britain. We had an identifiable 'master component' for each weapon that was neither supplied to Ordnance from the factory or ever available from Ordnance to our workshops. If the 'master component' was damaged beyond repair, then the rifle was condemned and was certifiably scrapped, against a signature or returned to Ordnance.

The sole exception to this, in my very little experience, was the M8C spotting rifle. But who would want a spotting rifle!

Canada was different (apologies to the Canadian I disagreed with over this..., was it you Maple Leaf?) as their Ordnance system did allow for this. And because of this, when the Brits and Canadian Armourers worked together such as in Wetter and Soest in Germany, special arrangements had to be made .....that seemed to work! But if you wanted an M8C!

[RJW NZ]

I'll have pics a day or two on this...

[limpetmine]

Given that the British didn't use this procedure, someone must have! I've got 4 or 5 examples in my serial number list of oddities like this, and a picture of a 1955 Long Branch with a 1943 serial number, (IIRC). I've also read elsewhere that this was done, using new but un serialed receivers. So if not your guys, perhaps the Canadians? Having a large shipment of LB's to NZ would lend credence to that theory, I suppose, given that the NZ's restamped each rifle with their own number. (I have a nice one with the N ^ Z stamp, as well).
Ye-gads, it could be maddening!

[Peter Laidler]

You're right of course Limpet, Canada DID issue replacement spare bodies..., what we called the master component but these weren't available in NZ and Australia because I worked there for 3 years. There were no bodies available in the NZ Ord system that I was ever aware of and we scrapped quite a few crates of LB and S rifles at the big Northern District Ord Depot.

As a matter of interest, when we did scrap rifles, we destroyed them with the cutting torch so that the serial number was still legible and whole. The two (pistols) or three (rifles) or 4 (machine guns and SMG's) parts were laid out and the condemnation certificate, a piece of paper called an AFG 1043A was signed by the workshop ASM then the Orderly Officer who certified that he'd seen the parts AND cross checked the serial number

[S-A-M3]

Hi Peter, NZ must have had replacement actions, because I have seen and owned at least 10 Savage rifles with LB serial Nos, wish I had taken some photos of then now.There were some unnumbered No4 Mk2 actions kicking around in the 1970`s, perhaps someone brought in some similar Mk1 actions and put them together. The No4 rifles sold with the Cadet Rifles in Wellington recently, were a real mix of parts and serial No`s. I think things have gone down hill badly since you were here! Some of the Lee Enfield Rifles on display at the Waiouru are a discrace.
Stuart.

[RJW NZ]

I've been back to the rifle and its clear that the bolt handle, the wrist and the knox form have been ground down and refinished in a kind of parkerizing. Whether this was done privately or army I don't know.
I'm looking around here to see how to get the pics up.