Mystery of the Missing Wartime Long Branch Snipers

[Seaspriter]

Indications are that the first stage of the program started (likely) based on selecting an accurate rifle and converting it.

The second stage was likely started when Peter's oft referred to H&H production specialist showed up to solve the low production problems. It was to go down and select a "batch" of 10-20 completed rifles (not necessarily consecutive, but close) and segregate them for conversion.

The third stage was true "serial block" production in that serial number "blocks" were set aside and receivers were converted and guns assembled as snipers...never having been standard service rifles.

Thanks so much for this insight and makes eminent sense. Those who have experienced manufacturing production systems certainly know the difference between very small batches (one-off bespoke), cluster batches, and large mass production. Of course, no mass production continuous flow manager wants to do small batches, it requires a different type of production approach.

On a related subject, here's what the data is starting to show (I will update in future posts):
Wartime Production (1941-Q2/1945): ~1025 Snipers produced, 9% accounted for
War's End Production (Q3-4/1945): 219 Snipers produced, 21% accounted for
Post War Production (1946): 376 Snipers produced, 23% accounted for

This means the total produced was in the range of (low) 1,588 to (high) 1,620 (not including the experimental models). As more data comes in we will get more clear what is most accurate and I will share the data base analysis.