#4 trials "sniper"

[boltaction]

Good morning:
Here's another rifle which I have also been offered from the same collection. The original owner has passed away and the rifles are being sold by another fellow; the provenance of the items is not really known. Again, I have not had it in hand yet, and the photos are a bit blurry (not deliberate). It is a 1931 dated #4, set up as a sniper. However, there are a few things about it which strike me as odd. All could be explainable, but I'd like some opinions from those who have probable forgotten more than I have ever known.

1. The rifle has a Mk I scope with sunshade mounted on it, which is fine. However, the scope seems to be completely devoid of markings from what I see in the photos and from what I have been told. I've run across a decent number of Mk I scopes over the years, but they've all had a maker mark and model number on them.
2. The mount seems to be unmarked as well--there is a small mark on the side of the mount which the seller can't make out. The rear ring seems to be stamped with a 257, or maybe a 4 digit number with the second one not really visible.
3. The screws holding in the front scope pad are not staked. I haven't seen a photo of the rifle with the scope off so don't know what the rear mount looks like.
4. The rifle does not have the waisted front sight protector, or the hinged bands. These of course could have been switched out in the course of the rifle's service, but from what I've read about these (pretty much all on this forum is where the info is) all others described have the early furniture. Maybe someone has one which doesn't but it just hasn't been mentioned.
5. The front band and the metal "shoes" on the front of the top and bottom forewood are quite worn, which is fine, but the sight protector and the muzzle aren't, making me think they were mated together at different times in their service life. In my experience, if the bands are worn in finish, so should be everything else around them.
6. The rifle does not have a cheekpiece on it. There is no number stamped on the top of the buttstock. Where the number should be, as can be seen in the photos, the top of the buttstock has been badly chipped at some point, like perhaps it was jacked back and forth in a rifle with the stock bolt loose.
7. The bolt is the correct early type, but is un numbered.
8. The marks on the buttsocket seem to be scuffed in the photos--have to see it in person to know if they've been messed with in some way.
9. The magazine cutoff seems to be the earlier milled pattern, not the later stamped type which are described as being on these rifle.

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So, thoughts? Real, fake.....? Could one ever know? It is a 1931 #4, which is kind of neat in its own right. It has an early Mk I scope on it, although it is unmarked. One could postulate it was set up as a sniper along with the rest and had its furniture changed out at some point in its life, and either never had a cheekpiece (did that EVER happen?) or the buttstock was changed. Alternatively, it could just be a #4 trials which someone ruined by putting a set of mounts and early scope on. Actually, looking at my own list of things which might be wrong with this rifle, maybe I can answer my own question......

Ed

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