Hi guys and girls. I friend handed me a #4 mk1 to refinish the butt for him. It is full wood but drilled and tapped and crudely painted.
It is an early Maltby 41 with a "a" suffix, ftr with no date.
Now, the surprise was when I went to tear it apart, it was a mk1/2. No stamps to indicate that,, and the barrel turned out to be a Canadian Arsenals 308.
So the question would be, why no mark to indicate the mk1/3 and why a Canadian barrel? Never seen that before.
And by the way, the fore stock used brass fittings and screw to secure it at the butt socket end rather than the standard steel screw and nut.
Well, you've come to the right place to start learning.
The DCRA old timers didn't have much to work with when No.4s were so common. Leave it in the sun for too long, and trigger pressures or bedding would change. Shoot it in the rain, and watch for stringing. Short matches on score, with lots of variables. So when the conversions were legalized, they rejoiced. Shooters would send their number one or two rifles off, hoping that the lightning would reappear.
So, your ugly "painted" rifle was probably once someone's go to service match rifle. That affront to esthetics is called Suncorite. The Brits were throwing rifles together like madmen early in the war. The finish chips and flakes, but it worked for as long as the troops were anticipated to use their rifles between rebuilds (or losses).
The fact it is a hung trigger tells me it was intentionally chosen over all the others, and yes over Long Branches, because the pressures were more consistent. The British later realized that attaching the trigger to the trigger guard was two steps short of stupid, but that is what the drawings said, and war production had to be met. Time to change that when the war is over.
You are worried about no markings on the barrel. Not all conversions were done at Canadian Arsenals. Although I don't have the references, I understand parts kits were sold for less than a shop job. It was a common task at gunsmiths' shops in Canada and in UK, where the conversions were also allowed.
No idea about the butt fittings. Maybe someone was trying to snug it tighter, and used the materials at hand.
