B.L.R. Beyond Local Repair

[spinecracker]

It has the BNP mark, which would indicate it was proof tested some time after 1954 before it was unleashed on the civilian market. Does the rifle have "ENGLAND" stamped on it anywhere? That would be a pre-1968 export mark.

More photos of the rifle in its entirety would be appreciated.

[Peter Laidler]

BLR........... In the Commonwealth armies this stands for Beyond Local Repair. Definately NOT Bangladesh Light Reconnaisance Corps or Bengal Lancer Regiment. In our Army it was only really used on small arms at unit level by unit Armourers.............. I'll give you and example. An L1A1 rifle is found to have a loose gas block during a routine inspection. That cannot be rectified at the unit because it means a barrel change. In this case, the letters Y (for Field workshop - the next level up - repair) BLR. BLR because it's fairly easily repaired. In the meantime a big red or at least distinct label or 'BLR' will be dobbed onto the butt. During the course of time, off it goes with the paperwork to the Field workshop who have the facilities to replace the barrel.

However, if during their fuller examination, they find that it also has a worn locking shoulder opening or body locking catch for example, they'll do one of two things.
Return it to you with the authority to send it on to the NEXT line of repair. This will then have a Z (for Base workshop repair)BER or
Send it directly to the Base Workshops

To be fair, the examiner at the Field or Command workshops will know whether the rifle is to be repaired at Z (Base workshops don't forget) or whether the Base workshops will just condemn it ZF. If it was just a loose gas block it'd be repaired of course but with multiple Z faults, it'd just be sentenced Z (Base workshops) BER as beyond any sort of economic repair so it gets the chop.

I know it seems an unwieldly process, but it actually works well because the Armourers lower down the food chain know those higher up operate.

Loose return spring tubes were another Y-BLR repair. But knowing the Armourers further up the chain, they'd just say '........ send the paperwork in and we'll send you a few return spring tubes to do the job yourself. Not quite the same with a barrel change or welding up a loose body locking lug

There it is. BLR. NOT Bengal Lancers Regiment but a unit Armourers mark

[gsimmons]

Thanks for all the help! It's an interesting rifle 1912 dated butt socket but MkIII* upgrades, no volley sights, non-adjustable sight, new barrel and ears on lower hand guard have been cut off.

[Beerhunter]

The "REME Bloke" doing the annual inspection at my school once told me that by then (early 60s) that if the fault was anything more than VERY simple stuff on a rifle that was marked BLR, the rifle was disposed of. (He actually said "scrapped" but I now believe that "disposed of" more accurately reflects what happened to them.)

After REME inspection, we shipped the BLRs off and never saw them again.

As I have said before, the classic BLR for us was a broken rail on a No.4 Mk.1*.

[Peter Laidler]

You're right Beery........ It WAS BLR because you didn't have unit Armourers. The chipped rail rifle would have gone to workshops and they'd have arranged it all via the QM at the military training teams. That's still the way it works today. At workshops they'd have looked and considered a chipped/broken Mk1* rail then considering the value then would have been something like £14, it'd have been uneconomic to repair. However, if you had a repair programme where you'd gather in, say 30 rifles with a broken rail or stripped locking bolt spring screw threads or another favourite, elongated/oversize sear axis pin holes that needed bushing, then it would be economic. Get my drift......!

[Beerhunter]

then it would be economic. Get my drift......!

Which neatly leads us to BER - Beyond Economic Repair.

[Peter Laidler]

BER indicates that it COULD be repaired but simply isn't WORTH repairing. In other words, the cost of repairs is in excess of the cost of the rifle. But it is a very subjective category. For example Bedford trucks that have a specialist body on the rear, such as a machine shop or dental surgery or an XRay machine or aerial photo lab. A standard Bedford truck with a seized engine or that's been awash in a swollen river might be worth £1,000 and need a new £2,000 engine and gear box so it'd be written off. But the same truck that has a special body would be worth 25,000 so even though the chassis and cxab was worth zilch, the vehicle would still be repaired.

Same as rifles. A £14 No4 rifle that needs £10 of work 1967, just to be returned to the UK later where it was obsolescent in any case. Another case of BER. Same £14 rifle belonging to another nation that needs £20 of repairs and will be used for another 30 years, it's repaired regardless.

Sometimes it's clearly uneconomic to repair but events dictate policy. Landrover trailers used to rot out in the tropics and they had to come from Randwick (Near Sydney, made by a firm of tram makers as I recall............) so when times were tight, they'd be cannibalised and totally rebuilt locally at great cost in material, wages and overtime for the civvies working in the press shop who could never 'find' the lost press tools from last time so had to remake them first!

In short, BER was a matter for the budget holder. In our big workshops the bloke we called the 'progress chaser' usually held sway on the economics of the BER status

[Beerhunter]

It reminds me of the practically brand-new Lightweight Land Rover that a friend of mine bought some years back. Apparently when some clown FFR'd it, he drilled a couple of holes though the chassis to pass some large diameter cables. Unfortunately the holes were at some stress point or other and so the LR did not survive a parachute drop/heavy chopper landing/What Have You - the chassis bent. Obviously someone declared it BER (new chassis required) and my mate bought it for a song. He straightened it, plated over the holes and the bent bits, and bingo - a Lightweight FFR on the cheap.

However, I understand that the MoD do not scrap Wolfs these days for something as trivial as a bent chassis.

[smellie]

So that puts things in an excellent perspective for those of us who were never in The System or were merely peripheral to it.

On a lot of forums, DP is taken to mean far more than it actually does, and one has an awful time trying to explain.

I actually saw a forum which denounced the ZF as "unimportant". And I have an older manual here which describes it as an "unknown unit marking, probably Indian".

So now we have it straight from The Horse's Mouth, so to speak: BLR, BER and the dreaded ZF explained.

And I always thought it meant "Breech Loading Rifle" or some such! (Of course, it DID, but the rifles were a lot bigger!)

ALWAYS time to pound the Simple Truth into my Simple Mind.
Thank you.

[gsimmons]

Maybe I'm a little thick,but is this a repaired/FTR'd rifle? Or if had been repaired the BLR would have been taken off?