Lined Through/Defaced Broad Arrow on P-14 MkI E ?

[AD-4NA]

EY rifles in general were not some deathrap DP rifles, as stated by this forum's own Peter Laidler:
https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...ter-Laidler%29

But they will have been out of service and out of an armorers care for many decades now.

Furthermore, having looked at a lot of them when they come up for sale, P14 EY rifles are nothing like No1/SMLE EY or GF rifles at all. Like fjruple partly said P'14 EY rifles are pretty exclusively early Eddystone Mk1 no asterisks rifles with less interchangeable early production parts. They seem to have been declared "EY" en masse, with consistent stamping and most unmolested examples seem to have kept their original volley sights. I don't believe these EY P14's were used for firing grenades at all, and were never wire wrapped. Far from being cobbled together junk, Eddystone P14 EY rifles usually seem to be generally some of the absolute nicest condition P14 rifles out there today. I have no archive documents backing this up, just observations but if you look closely at just a couple of these rifles you'll see what I mean.


I would be very interested to see if rifles in this particular configuration could specifically be spotted in use by the Home Guard or other second line units; if the Weedon refurbished rifles went elsewhere.


And now I've given up a collector secret to the market...maybe!
Savvy buyers seem to have spotted the condition these rifles are usually in over here and they seem to go for a premium price now. They certainly beat out beat up rifles covered in Weedon stamps that some silly previous owner put fake volley sights back on.