1944 Lithgow

[yoopercollector]

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I was wondering if anyone can help me with a Lithgow No.1 MkIII* I recently acquired. I would like to know if the markings are correct. The sights are marked WA43. The front hand guard looks like there is a 5 stamped on the underside and the rear hand guard has SLAZ43. The bolt head has an M and BA and cocking piece has OA43. The trigger guard, trigger and nose cap has BA. There is HC over SC behind rear sight. The brass butt plate and barrel band are marked OA. There are O's stamped in various parts. The bolt and receiver match as do the numbers on the bottom of bolt handle and on the flat of the stock band. The barrel and nose cap don't have serial numbers. The barrel band has MA Lithgow SMLE 944, the one doesn't show. I have included some pictures of some markings. Thanks

Information

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[yoopercollector]

This rifle has excellent rifling and the headspace passes with go/nogo gauges. It has the copper recoil plates in the fore stock. I can't find any import marks, I removed everything except the butt stock and butt plate.

[Homer]

I can't see the photos well enough on my phone but it sounds legitimate enough. The nose cap certainly would have originally been numbered but not the barrel.

[yoopercollector]

Thanks for the help. All the rifles I looked at had a serial number on the nose cap. The barrel is dated 11 44. The butt stock has SLAZ42 by the trigger guard and has MOA SMLE III* HV 1945 on the right side of stock. The fore stock has SLAZ44 and the small rear hand guard has SLAZ43 on the underside. Is it normal to have different dates like that?

[Homer]

Yeah those dates are when that piece of wood was made. The 1945 date on the RHS of the butt is when the rifle was assembled.

[Ridolpho]

yooper: My '44 is virtually identical and also has an un-numbered nosecap. Have you checked out the example in the forum library? I suspect we're dealing with late war expediency when it comes to the details on these '44's.

Ridolpho

[yoopercollector]

Thanks again for the help. Just started adding to my WW2 gun collection again. Moved over to British rifles and don't know much about them. Got a Savage No.4 Mk1* and this Lithgow No.1 MkIII*. Been reading up on them to kind of know what I'm getting. The Savage was pretty easy, had all S stamps. The Lithgow was harder because I read there could be fake ones.

---------- Post added at 08:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:05 PM ----------

No I haven't seen the forum library, where do I look, just joined today.

[yoopercollector]

I think I found the forum library. There were 42 pictures of a 1944 Lithgow. Mine has all the markings except the nose cap serial number. Some of mine were OA instead of BA though. Even my magazine has the same marks. The under side of the rear sight has the WA43 also. Thanks for the info.

[muffett.2008]

Looks ridgeedidge to me, OA(Orange), BA (Bathurst), WA (Wellington) all Small Arms Factory annexes.
Nice pickup of a late built rifle.

[yoopercollector]

Thanks for all the help, the back side of the safety is marked FA which I think is also correct. Makes me feel better about my purchase. I was a little worried because except for the dings in the stock the barrel and metal looked to nice to be that old.