What's up with my Enfield?

All Nitro Proof stamps have a "P" after the N so it would be crown over NP. The crown doesnt quite look right, with your permission I'll e mail the pic to Bill Harriman at Shooting times and see what he says. Got me started now, I dont normally bother but as neither mark is shown in Skennerton or the Collector grade stuff I am caught!
The crossed flags are inspectors marks, military proof is different to civilian marks. They are inspectors crossed flags with a P below or an N for british Naval. The only use of crowns is either a civilian proof act stamp or a Govt contract factory stamp and they would be on the wrist/butt socket. P on its own can mean replacement barrel or paralell bore?
The crown does look like theBSA Shirley crown on repairs or conversions but it would then have BR underneath.
As stated above if an N on its own it would be Naval but that doesnt explain the scrubbing around the solitary N. I suspect its a Nitro proof from that year 48? and its a poor crown stamp. I'll e mail them off!
 
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TimC said:
The crown doesnt quite look right, with your permission I'll e mail the pic to Bill Harriman at Shooting times and see what he says.
Click to expand...

Go nuts. I haven't been able to locate my markings anywhere in the net.

Thanks.
 
Went into sporting questions, If I win anything its yours unless its booze! Hang on if it is and its not Ginger wine you can have the last bottle of that I won!
 
that's not a Navy N. The Naval "N" is virtually always located on the buttsocket, safety side in a large, usually seriffed font.

I suspect it is a nitro proove mark from whichever country was the last to surplus that rifle.
 
I would bet actual MONEY (if I had any) that the stamp is an inspector's stamp. somewhere there is a greathuge list with inspectors' names on one side, their stamps on the other.

Naval rifles were quite well-marked; I have two Smellies that were Navy (a 1904 LSA Mk I*** and a 1907 Enfield Mk I***, but different conversions) and both are stamped with a quite-large "N" on the LEFT side of the butt socket.

The Number 4 was never built in India, but they liked to repair the stocks of all their rifles before there was any problem. I have a post-Independence SMLE with half a dozen repairs in the wood: it was unfired until a couple of years ago, shoots nice. India has rather an extreme range of climatic conditions, everything from 40 below and dry in the mountains, right down to tropical seaside swamp: with this range of cinditions, a rifle built for one climate would have problems when moved, so they modded the stocks so that the rifles could be used anywhere. On rifles of Indian manufacture, this was done right at the factory: half a dozen "repairs" that were really preventive modifications. Worked.
 
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