long lee markings question

tristanium

tristanium

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i've been given this today,a 1892 long lee shortened to 18"...what is the NZ marking? also under the barrel is about 5 inches of inspector's stamps,was that common on these rifles?
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The NZ is a New Zealand ownership mark. As for the proof marks, that number of proofs is uncommon, and some of them don't look familiar to me. The standard "crossed flags" ones are standard proofs--I wonder if some of the others are reproofs perhaps? Others may know off the top of their heads.

Cheers

Ed
 
Most of those are Inspector's marks. They had a Travelling View program for a long time. Inspectors would go to each Regiment and inspect very rifle there, then stamp the things to show that they had been inspected. Supposedly this happened on at least an annual basis. You can build up a lot of markings that way.

But each and every one of those stamps means something. You just have to suss out what they mean.

E under a crown indicates the inspector was at Enfield. B indicates Birmingham. An ITALIC B indicates the Birmingham Repair plant: the old Sparkbook factory. An N on the LEFT side of the butt socket indicates that the rifle was issued to the Navy.

D/!\D means Australia. NZ or N/!\Z is New Zealand. U with an arrow inside it is South Africa. C with an arrow inside is Canada.

There are hundreds, literally. Now you have a really good reason to pick up that nice book of Ian Skennteron`s!
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