Numbering of weapons

[Peter Laidler]

I never saw an RUC issued L1A1. They would occasionally shoot them on the range and certainly WXXXU had some. And don't even ask for any elaboration on that................

In the great scheme of things Gil, the man DID record the rifle serial number sufficient for positive identification I'd say. But unless a few others turn up without the identifier data, the wisdom of the crowd might decree that he didn't record the unnecessary identifier.

[Gil Boyd]

I think Peter, he did his job very well and certainly for a Sec 5 holder as a manufacturer Parker Hale like many others had to record what they saw stamped on the weapon when they recorded it.
He states he would not have done it in full for one and not the other. Tiome will no doubt throw one of these up as either a Deac or still on someones permit. Only 15 years ago when the stock went to the four winds on liquidation!!!

[Peter Laidler]

I appreciate all that Gil the line 1 above. We'll have to wait until another turns up so engraved. Maybe as this thread is read by others from other forums one will.might come to light.

To be honest, if anyone had seen a rifle with an identifier-less number, then it'd be KtK, Tankie or KevG who'd spot it straight away.

[nzl1a1collector]

The issues of the 'serial number' on British L1A1's is one I have stumbled over while doing an informal gathering of numbers to try and make sense of the batches of s/n used by BSA and Enfield. I've had to restart the gathering of information, because I couldn't validate some of it I had been given by 3rd parties so I've been looking for photos which show the full indicator and serial number to help work out the batches.

There are two goals for the research, the first is to try and figure out how many L1A1 rifles were produced, at this stage is up around 155,000. Nowhere near the 250,000 that is reported to of originally requested. This in part I understand was due to the downsizing of the British Army in the late 50s early 60's. The other of course is to work out the serial number blocks given to each company and find the Fazakerley serial number blocks given to BSA.

If anyone has the full indicator and serial number from the THM or Body and would like to share please PM or I will set up a new topic especially for it.

[Gil Boyd]

In your research then, have you perhaps come across serial numbers on their own without prefix's?

[nzl1a1collector]

I have been given serial numbers without the prefix's .... that in the end became useless to me when trying to sort out if its Enfield or BSA and the reason I'm starting over with the search for confirmed details. But I think a lot of that was because the numbers people gave me came from Breech Blocks and Carriers. I think especially with BSA rifles you could quite easily loose the prefix to the serial number (and the serial numbers) as they seem to be hand engraved, they certainly don't seem to of been done with a pantograph or engraving machine. On the other hand the ones from Enfield you could lose a small child in the engravings.