John Rigby & Sons No. 1 Mk.III Sniper

[Promo]

It would be very interesting to indeed find out whether the rifle would fit to the mount of your two scopes! And make sure to check the serial of the rifle, the document I had sent you today mentions several rifles with fittings for scopes, among them serial G.5724, 2981, V.771 and G.7060 (if I read them correctly). Would be quite a discovery to find out there were two different scope mounts made by Rigby, and finally have the production numbers for those two also.

[Roger Payne]

If the firearms curator will let me have a look at the rifles I'll certainly take notes!

[Promo]

I've tried to re-upload the pictures. Would appreciate feedback if that had worked or if I failed doing so. Thanks.

[Roger Payne]

Hi Georg. If you mean the pictures at the very start of the thread, I can see them perfectly. Cheers.

[Surpmil]

Just glancing again at the first photos in this thread. It has been a matter of some interest what became of the rifles removed from the Pattern Room collection circa 1940/41 for emergency use.

I wonder if we have a clue here in the "P7" marking on the butt of this rifle?

If this is not a Pattern Room marking - and that seems very unlikely - what else could it be?

It's been theorized that those rifles were either sent for use in sniper training, or doled out to the "British Resistance Movement" stay-behind units.

Would "P7" correspond to anything known to be related to the BRM? "Patrol 7" perhaps??

[Promo]

Ian Skennerton back when he did the description of the Faris collection put it this way:

Markings: No unit or issue markings, 'P7' museum number at toe of butt.

as well as

Other notes: Per rifles listed in 1927 A.I.D. sniper rifle catalogue, Enfield Pattern Room

[Surpmil]

Ian Skennerton back when he did the description of the Faris collection put it this way:

as well as

If the rifles from that 1920s list which still remain in the Pattern Room aka "Royal Armouries" collection show similar markings, that would be conclusive.

I wonder if any do.

[Roger Payne]

There's little if anything remaining off the 1927 list (off the top of my head)..............I've often wondered how the Rigby rifle came to survive when all of the others disappeared early in the second world war (or we assume they did). And following on from that, if this rifle remained there, why did the PR let it go when it clearly was not a duplicate & is a very historically significant firearm? It all seems most odd to me, although I'm glad it has ended up in the hands of someone who will look after it & who is happy to share it with us.

[Surpmil]

Various possibilities: for example having been (presumably) inspected before being taken back into service, the rifle was found to have a NS/US scope, was sent somewhere - perhaps Rigby or their successor firm(?) - for repair of same? Couldn't be fixed or never was, and was simply forgotten about in the many changes of organization and personnel in the early war years?

Or was it quietly pinched as so many telescopic sights and telescopes were over the years? "Lost through enemy action", but "found again" in someone's personal kit later?

More interesting perhaps is how the mount system actually works; Rigby's clearly didn't economize on machining time when making those rings-bases.