No4(T) No32 Scope Bracket

[Surpmil]

The seller just added the receiver pads today - very rough and extremely odd method of fixing to the receiver. The front pad has 3 screws and 2 pins - odd pattern for the screws - not to normal spec. Then there are the 2 pins that anchor the pad to the top of the receiver. The rear pad has only the through-hole for the bracket fixing screw - no individual mounting screws like we see on every other correct rifle - seller says rear mount was silver soldered only. With all that I've observed, it definitely looks "foreign" to British construction. I tend to agree with prior assertion this may have been a setup copied by and implemented by India (or another former colony using British equipment). I also think it is an original bracket - just not original to war department specs. With the odd configuration of the mounting blocks, I'd be concerned the bracket may not match the mounting points of a correctly setup rifle from H&H.

The pads are Israeli; no connection to the bracket that I can see, except that they should fit together.

[jmoore]

So why not an Israeli bracket as well? Except that the match marks aren't Hebrew...Hardly seems a disqualifier.

BTW, here's the "usual" screws one would expect to find on a front pad for comparision to the one on auction:

[Surpmil]

So why not an Israeli bracket as well? Except that the match marks aren't Hebrew...Hardly seems a disqualifier...

Maybe, but there's no reason to think so. The seller is auctioning off all kinds of old scopes and mounts from a collection and these just happened to be part of it.

The "thumb screws" are UK WWII production; they match exactly known examples. The bracket has one original spring washer and one later replacement (thicker and ends not bevelled) It could well have had a SN or two ground out as well judging by the appearance below the rear ring cap.

The "match mark" digit 1 is exactly the same type as seen on many other brackets, just upside down. The ampersand symbol we've never seen before of course, but heck, maybe they were just short of stamps that week and the upside down bit was a simple mistake that was copied on the second ring after it was accidentally struck on the first?

It's all hypothesis now, we can each choose the one that seems most probable to us!

[Peter Laidler]

I just can't agree with your theory about the disgruntled employee doing his own thing Surpmil. No doubt there were disgruntled employees but there were also eagle eyed inspectors too.

Anyone else out there got a set of not only undecipherable markings on a bracket? Not just undecipherable, but undecipherables that aren't sequential to boot!

If anyone here does win it, just send me some filing samples and we'll do the acid test.......

[paulseamus]

Peter

If my bids are successful, i am happy to send you the whole lot to see if you can make head or tail of them.

Indian issue or Isreali issue still sounds better than Taiwan junk.

Paul

[Norton1]

I don't know about "Taiwan junk" as my aftermarket mount fits incredibly well. I can take it off and put it back on with no change in POI. And I've removed the scope from the rings and replaced it and suspect it won't be far off from the original sighting point. Very precision piece -

[PrinzEugen]

The seller's certainly got some interesting stuff there.

[paulseamus]

Norton

Junk....of chinese origin.....as in chinese ship.

Paul

[Surpmil]

I just can't agree with your theory about the disgruntled employee doing his own thing Surpmil. No doubt there were disgruntled employees but there were also eagle eyed inspectors too.

Anyone else out there got a set of not only undecipherable markings on a bracket? Not just undecipherable, but undecipherables that aren't sequential to boot!

If anyone here does win it, just send me some filing samples and we'll do the acid test.......

Peter, I was remembering what you told us about Fazackerly and its labour problems for example. I've read of cases of what amounted to sabotage by war workers in WWII, particularly before the Soviets were dragged into the war, when the communists and their fellow travellers were all yapping about it being an "imperialist war". Things like tanks arriving in North Africa with sea water inside from from lack of sealing etc. Can't recall the source of that, but the statement was made that this was probably deliberate.

[Peter Laidler]

I can see exactly what you're saying Surpmil but the two are chalk and cheese really. I whole workforce at H&H where the mounts were finished was in a two storey very small factory where it would be difficult for a lone worker to cause 'sabotage'. And North ondon is not reputed to be a hotbed of communist sympathy In the great scheme of things, just stamping something with alien markings that won't make a jot of difference for the next 10 years and even then, will only come apart except from inside an Armourers or Instrument shop probably falls in the '....being dim but naughty' category as opposed to sabotage! This to me is something in the 'I can't read English but it'll pass' school - in much the same way that they mark something ENFELD or ENFEILD.

Nope....... That ain't the work of the premier gunsmiths who never put a foot wrong. Like I say, that's only my opinion. I know that some of our stuff was poor but functional but some things just stick out like a bulldogs bollo............., er.......... you get my drift