Looking for some help/direction with a No 4 Mk 1 T

[AR44]

Not so much lost interest. Time to appriciate. I could rent it out hourly

[Surpmil]

That's very interesting Roger, and one is left wondering. I had the remains of a 1941 Maltby T myself and we've seen three or four on this forum over the years, usually in MkI type birch forends n'est pas? Mine had a smaller S51: 1/4" to 5/16" going from memory now. When these rifles were converted is the mystery isn't it? Could it be that a decision was made to set aside rifles of at least presumed better quality, in 1941 or early 42, for later sniper conversion? It might have made sense if to put away enough rifles for the contract, or at least part of it, if there was concern that later production might be of lesser quality for a few years, or that bombing might interfere with production, or shipping losses with supply from North America. Those things were all somewhat unknowns in 1941/42. There is the precedent of 10,000 Winchester P14s being set aside after WWI, though obviously from a situation of surplus rather than shortage, or potential shortage.

Pity H&H didn't keep a ledger or two!

Rob,
There were a number of 1941 dated BSA Savage & Maltby rifles in the batch we bought back in the 1990's, & of those that still had butts on them, all bore the S51 except one, which had obviously been rebutted at some point. You might be right, but for this reason I've always assumed that as far as the marking system went, the S51 was probably the first to appear in regular use (our rifles generally lacked the other characteristic markings such as the 'T', 'TR', etc.). Admittedly we are talking of a small sample size, but of around ten or a dozen rifles, all the same. We also bought some cannibalised spares & amongst the several sacks of bits was an early 4T butt bearing a TINY S51 stamp, only about 1/8" tall. Perhaps it was added after the event, or maybe it belonged to one of the first rifles to be converted & marked by H&H, before they'd got into their stride......??