Is it a No1? Pic Heavy What are the marks?

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gerard488

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Just picked this up today, now I would love to know what the marks are all about. Barrel looks good, un-cut, has a brass ring around the barrel where the screw is in the forestock.
It has been sporterized, Just wondering if it would be a good a good one to restore. Also wondering what the fancy R on the barrel knox is for. Has matching numbers on bolt and receiver, Haven`t seen a number on the barrel







 
Yup, an SMLE No1Mk3* made in Australia. The markings on the butt stock are awesome, never sand that one! If the bore is nice, a definite good candidate for a refurb.

The D broad arrow D mark is the Australia dept. of defence mark

Lou
 
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The 1/4 inch "N" on the left side of the butt socket near the safety signifies a Naval issued rifle. "OA" and "MA" are Australian factories. 1942 rifle looks like refurbished in 1945 according to dates on butt stock and barrel.
 
The R over MAO over the date indicates the rifle was refurbed or repaired in the Orange factory in 1945. The butt is off a much older English rifle by the look of it and assembled onto this rifle when it was refurbed, so the D^D over 1 and the 30314 does not apply to this rifle. Rifles refurbed at this time were generally stripped to the action, reparkerised and rebuilt into new rifles using new and used parts. Pre-used butts are very common and it seems no effort was made to remove markings from the previous rifle, much like this one. Not numbering barrels was also the practice.
The R on the barrel indicates it was found by inspectors to have had rust at some time.
 
Couple of more questions,
What does the 6 over the MA mean?
Are the brass barrel bands common?
What are all the numbers and *`s in front of the butt socket?
Can anything else be learned from the serial number?

Thanks again for the answers.


 
I don 't know how common brass barrel bands are, but I have one on one of my rifles. Normaly they are painted but I polished the one on mine for the fun of it.:)
 
Not sure what 6 over MA means.

Brass barrel bands are very common on rifles made second half of WW2.

The numbers and stars are inspection marks.

Not sure what else can be learned from the serial number, but you can generally work out a rifles approximate manufacture time from it.
 
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