C broad arrow mark

[Claven2]

The Australian cadets sold a lot of their SMLE rifles to Canada in the 1990’s when civilian gun ownership effectively ended (mostly) in that country. CAI Montreal imported many of these here, more than Canada’s usual share (some went to the states too) because of our long affinity for 303’s in Canada. You might recall many of those had yellow painted muzzles.

What is rarer is any lithgow or Ishapore made SMLE with c-arrow stamps. They exist, but seem to be really rare. Presumably not many of them were available in good condition for transfer to the CEF ensuring or after the war.

I have noted a fair percentage of ssa/nrf rifles with Canadian markings. Not sure why.

 

[jtaylor]

India got a lot of SMLEs from Australia after the Australian forces switched to the L1A1 SLR.

I wonder if Canada did the same and sent some of its older stocks of rifles to India as well.

Of noted a few Australian made rifles within Canada and I wonder if they were rifles sent after Australia sold off its stock of SMLEs to the USA and Canada in the 1980s or whether Australia sent some to Canada before hand.

Hi Mattyr82. I remember the 80s. A large pile of Australian rifles were brought in surplus. '41 to '45 some minty.
I think I had a minty '44 that had a reddish hue to the stock. Let it go after a couple of years. Can't keep 'em all.
Last year I picked up a collection and it had a heavy barrel that I kept. Long range sights, 1916, date on stock 9 - 16.
The barrel date is 1934. I think 5thBatt has one as well dated 1934. I love SMLEs with mag cut-offs and long range sights.
My rifle has only one sale mark on the knox and it is an arrow over top of an S. I think its a sale mark?? One that I had before had a great sale mark along with a 1950's date so it was intended for target use.. I would almost think that in 1934 Lithgow made up many of these heavy barrels and its possible that mine was held back for possible sniper use in war reserve or because the stock shows too much use to attract a commercial sale. Was there a 1934 production run of HBs? There may have been the odd Lithgow at gun shows 60 years ago but not many. I was always after Canadian. Cheers. John T.