A Maltby a bit odd

[Giove]

A 1942 Maltby with a 1941 Long Branch S.N.?

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[Roger Payne]

I may be wildly wrong Giove, but I think what could be a letter L is in fact a 1.

[CINDERS]

There is no gap at the wrist where the butt joins as PL pointed out there needs to be a small gap otherwise the recoil will start to splinter the wood as you can see how little pieces have started to split off from the wrist wood, PL said it was a wedge fitment for the butt to the wrist socket.
Certainly in a hurry to stamp it perhaps it was end of shift on a week end!

[Alan de Enfield]

I may be wildly wrong Giove, but I think what could be a letter L is in fact a 1.

Would a Maltby have a 6 digit serial number ?

Could it be prefix with letter "O" and then the 5 digits with the 1st prefix number being 1 to denote Maltby manufacture ?



No.4 and No.5 rifle serial numbers can readily identify manufacturers. British No.4 rifles have five numbers, usually after one or two letter prefixes. The same letter prefix(es) were used by Maltby, Fazakerley & BSA Shirley, A to Z then AA, AB to AZ, then BA to BZ, CA to CZ &c.
Maltby rifle serial numbers commence with a number '1',
Fazakerley with a '2' and
Shirley with a '3',

e.g. 1xxxx for Maltby, 2xxxx for Fazakerley and for Shirley, 3xxxx, after the letter prefix.

Late Shirley numbers then supposedly ran A4000 to A7999 and with PS prefixes at the very end of production. Post-war Fazakerley No.4 rifles had PF letter prefixes. The only exception to the 5-number sequence for No.4 rifles was the initial BSA Shirley production which ran from 0001 to 9999 then went with A to Z prefixes (A0001 to A9999 to the Z prefix) and some early dual letter prefixes (e.g. AT 0303), but then went over to A30001, &c. So early M47C No.4 rifle numbers could be confused with the Jungle carbine in having four rather than five numbers.

[Roger Payne]

Sorry Alan. Yes, I should have been more specific. I think after the first run Maltby did use a letter prefix, & of course, the serials started with a '1'.

[Giove]

Yes, thanks, you all are right.

I was deceived by what the Italian depot (PMAL) stamped:

[GeeRam]

Would a Maltby have a 6 digit serial number ?

Could it be prefix with letter "O" and then the 5 digits with the 1st prefix number being 1 to denote Maltby manufacture ?

Would they used the letter O though?
In my old engineering days, we never used the letters I, O & Q as prefix's because they could be misread as zero, one and zero.

[Roger Payne]

I have a WW1 era SMLE that has a 'O' prefix, & whilst I cannot be 100% I'm pretty sure I've heard of at least one 'O' prefix 44 BSA 4T, although I agree it's potentially confusing.

[Alan de Enfield]

And Savage had 0Cxxxx whilst Long Branch had 0Lxxxx


0C1 - 1941 MKI lowest # 1941 date
0C2804 - 1941 MKI highest # 1941 date

0C3870 - 1942 MKI lowest # 1942 date

https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...duction%20line.

[GeeRam]

And Savage had 0Cxxxx whilst Long Branch had 0Lxxxx


0C1 - 1941 MKI lowest # 1941 date
0C2804 - 1941 MKI highest # 1941 date

0C3870 - 1942 MKI lowest # 1942 date

https://www.milsurps.com/content.php...duction%20line.

They're from t'other side of pond though, so doesn't count regarding old British Engineering practices