A study of No.4 Mk.I "Trials" rifles: information requested!

[Surpmil]

Second Set of Images

One interesting aspect of your photos Waco16 is your forend cross-strap is of the standard type rather than the screw and nut more often seen on the few Model C rifles that survive. Unless the forend was replaced at some point with another "trials" example, the RSAF(E) stamp on the cross-strap end means the screw and nut modification is probably something done by Fulton's when they set up such rifles for target use.

Your forend does have a somewhere different profile ahead of the large guard screw though: the Model C rifle were very straight in profile there. This is probably what Skennerton refers to as the "modified forend profile" of the Model C rifles.

Mine had that done to it and the strap had been neatly cut away leaving only the ends and the space filled with a strip of wood as in the Devizes Gunsmith example below, though for some reason the ends of the cross-strap have been set in more deeply than others seen and a larger screw shank used.

I see the Devizes example also has the dowels let in to stop(?) the forend moving side to side; presumably done by Fultons.