Barrel Marking No4 Mk1*

[wilesbd]

Hello all, bought my first Enfield this weekend, its a 1942 Longbranch no4 mk1* serial 16L2187 with matching bolt (dont see any other serials on other parts) has a micrometer style rear site, groved rear handguard, and a 5 grove barrel. riffling and crown are beautiful, only real metal wear is on the buttplate and muzzle(im assuming from the bayonet), i beleive the sling is wrong thou, alot of ones of seen im research have leather.

ive been able to find some info on it, but not much (i think all my searches are omitting the * or only bring up savages) So far ive learned its canadian built, the mk1* had a simpler bolt removal, but otherwise not a whole lot, one big mystery to me is the stamp on top of the barrel, i think it might be the savage arms stamp, if so is it normal to have savage parts on a longbranch rifle, i know this was common with alot of other milsurps.

thanks for any help or info.

Information

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[gsimmons]

Actually the sling is correct, just on backwards. Ends on the inside flat part of the rivet toward the stock. It looks like a South African marked rifle. Can you take a clearer picture of the barrel it doesn't look like Savage.

[wilesbd]

Thank you for your help, and with the sling.

Heres a sligtly better picture, but with your lead i searched and it is a south african mark, if my understanding it correct it means after the war they were sold or given to south africa where it was re barreled in south africa and came out of their reserves in the 80s or 90s. which would explain the beautiful rifling

[12Bore]

I have an No 4 MK I 1948 Faz (made in Fazakerely) which has a similar history to yours. The wood is much nicer on yours but I have done nothing (yet) to clean it up. I also have the same South African marks and mine was rebarreled in April of 1961 and then most likely met the same fate as yours in the 80's-90's. The barrel on mine is also almost pristine. Here is a pic with the South African marks. Notice the M inside a U mark? That is also a SA mark. You have a great rifle there in great shape.

[wilesbd]

So the dates below the insignia are the date the rifle was re barreled? that would put mine as Sept 1959, mine has the upside down arrow in the U seems to be some questions regarding the history of this marking.

Thanks for the help guys, with the lead of the south African marking ive learned alot about this rifle. definitely one of the harder milsurps to research that ive owned.

[Brian Dick]

I had 400 No.4's as surplused from South African War Reserve Stores in the early 1990's. They were purchased by Interarms in Manchester, England and imported to the USA via their office in Alexandria, Virginia. The majority were post WWII ROF(F) manufacture, (both Mk.1 and Mk.2), along with a decent amount of Savage and a few wartime Long Branch rifles. All were very well maintained but had character. I'm sold out of them now except for a few of examples left in my personal collection and one No.4Mk.2 that had a bad ring in the bore and is rebarreled in 7.62 NATO.

[12Bore]

Both of the U marks are SA marks. The arrow within the U is the Union of South Africa mark which would have been stamped pre-1961. When South Africa left the commonwealth in 1961the M within the U mark appears for the Republic of South Africa.
Here is a good link

---------- Post added at 10:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:11 AM ----------

I had 400 No.4's as surplused from South African War Reserve Stores in the early 1990's.

Perhaps we have one of yours! Are you sure you don't have another you are willing to part with?

[wilesbd]

thanks for the link, after some good cleaning of the stock, the the foreend of the stock is also numbered matching thou pretty worn, but its now an all numbers matching rifle(minus the barrel ofcourse), the magazine has no numbers on it but does have the lb marking on it.

havent had the chance to take her to the range but from her condition i have high hopes. glad i didnt pass on her, i normally only collect carbines, i was looking for a no5, couldnt find one and got offered a deal on her i could pass up(walked out the door for $100 and a mosin T53, which i only had a $125 into and have 3 alreadly)