BSA Lee-Enfield removable .22 conversion kit

[UNPROFOR1994]

Wow, this was a result which I've been looking for!

Since you didn't mention it: is your kit also for the P.14 rifle? And did you receive it with a rifle or only the kit itself? How does your kit lock in the rifle?

And the trigger off course ;-)

[Peter Laidler]

I'm just suprised that noone has produced a similar kit for the No4, A barrel insert easily retained in place during unlocking, extraction and ejection of the case and a replacement bolt with offset firing pin. An otherwise unserviceable bolt would suffice in the .22" role. Absolute simplicity itself!

[UNPROFOR1994]

That would be more complicated than this system inspired by the K98k .22 conversion kit, made by Erma.

[Peter Laidler]

Not the way I'm thinking unprrofor! There's a saying '....where there's a will, there's an EASY way...'

[UNPROFOR1994]

After WW1 BSA acquired the rights to broker sales of all surplus British small arms and ammunition; many of such weapons were unserviceable and all of them were deemed unlikely to be of future use to the British Army.

Late 1920's and early 1930's BSA subcontracted its special relationship with the British government to smaller companies. The sales of unserviceable Pattern 1914 .303 rifles and Lewis guns anywhere in the world was to be administered by R. A. Rotherham & Co. and Soley Armaments Co. Ltd.

Soley was run by a retired Royal Flying Corps officer, Captain John Ball. He called his company “Soley” (established near Regents Park in 1927) in reference to his role as sole distributor of peacetime surplus arms within the United Kingdom.

John Ball established a partnership with the Belgian gun maker and dealer Edgard Grimard. After some time they even established the Soley-Grimard & Cie in Liège to convert Pattern 1914 rifles to the more desirable 7.92 x 57mm used by many nations in their Mauser rifles.

I think that these Patten 1914 .22 conversion kits were part of an arms deal of Pattern 1914 rifles between BSA and a yet to be identified customer. The British governement contracted BSA, BSA subcontracted Soley Armaments and Soley Armaments subcontracted Edgard Grimard to make these kits. In my opinion this is the only plausible explanation for the BSA markings and the Belgian proofs. What do you guys think about my theory?