Built during the battle of Britain?

[ricohman]

Here are a few pics of my 1940 SMLE No1 MKIII with cut off plate. It's a BSA rifle and appears to be all matching but who really knows if another bolt was fitted at the arsenal and restamped.
It does not have any Canadian broad arrows so I have so idea who owned it, but it is broad arrow stamped. I'd like to think it was built during the Battle of Britain, but that was only from July to October. But the Germans recorded the battle into June of 1941 if I remember correctly.

 

[green]

41 date on barrel

 

[ricohman]

41 date on barrel

Under a glass that appears to be a partially struck zero. But It does kind of look like a 1 in the pics.
I've also read that this may be a civilian barrel? That BSA crest on the barrel was only available on the civy barrel? And that these were mostly used up prior to dispersion. But this is just what I have read on the Internet.

 

[kjohn]

1940 ?? Mk III ??? with cut-off ???? Are you certain of the 19(4)0?

 

[ricohman]

1940 ?? Mk III ??? with cut-off ???? Are you certain of the 19(4)0?

It's a 1940. But not a *.
I read that BSA did build some of these with the cut off.

 

[JP]

The British were desperate for rifles, so BSA used anything it had on hand to build rifles. BSA raided its left over parts bin from past contracts for parts, things got even worst when the factory was bombed. So a lot of strange items were put together during this period. The bombing brought about the Dispersal Rifle program, were parts were built in many different factories all over England.