Milsurp After Hours

I collected my new No2 yesterday. Here are some pictures. I think No 2s are quite rare (?)

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The rifle is in very good condition and has clearly been in private rather than military ownership for most, if not all, of its life.

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The action is from a 1915 BSA No 1 Mk III*

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Unusually, the rifle is fitted with volley sights which normally would have been removed during conversion.

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Unfortunately, a small piece of the fore end has been broken off where the rear volley sight fits.

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This shot shows the 25 yard mark engraved on a standard sight leaf. A windage adjustable element is fitted.

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The magazine would originally have been an empty casing that simply collected the spent rounds but someone has fitted a wooden follower that is pinned through the casing.

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The butt disc is marked "J.C.R-H 1937" and I was pleasantly surprised to find an oiler in the butt trap marked with the same initials, together with a .22 pullthrough.

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The barrel was a shot-out 1908 .303 that was drilled out by AG Parker and fitted with a "Parkerifled" tube. Later conversions had purpose-made, solid .22 barrels. The sleeved barrel on my Bonehill Martini is seriously accurate so I'm hoping for similar results with this rifle.

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Here you can see that the action and barrel serials do not match. (The bolt and action serials do match)

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This view of the muzzle clearly shows the barrel liner.

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This front view of the bolthead shows the offset firing pin

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And this one of the rear shows the hole for the floating firing pin.

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This shot illustrates the short firing pin. The needle-like tip of the original .303 firing pin was ground off and the resulting flat face now strikes the rear of the .22 pin when the trigger is released. A clever solution to the problem.

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As the fired case is removed by the extractor it remains attached to the bolt face until flicked off with a finger. There is no ejector.

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I can imagine the reaction at the range when I fit the bayonet and then loose off a .22 round! Should be fun.

I'm taking her to the range tomorrow and I'll let you know how she shoots.

Brian

Lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice rifle and a cracking post Brian. A bit of a conundrum perhaps.

I would suggest that it isn't a period No 2 Patt 14 as these conversions usually had the converters stamp on the RH side of the butt socket under the Sht LE stamp mainly AG Parker.

Originally they were used sans magazine with the magazine case being introduced in 1925.

Does the magazine have .22" stamped on its side?

The star is a strange one for a Mk111*, however the date and the serial number indicate that your .22" is based on an early BSA No1 MK111* receiver as Mk111*s didn't come officially on line 'till 1916 but BSA are supposed to have made some in 1915 which could explain the odd star stamping.

Therefore I would suggest that it was converted to .22" later in its life.

Let the debate begin.

Dammit Brian!!! I am having one hell of a time controlling my envy.

That is a beautiful rifle. You aren't the only one who would like to pop off a few rounds at his range with bayonet afixed to see the reaction. Thanks for posting.

aj

I think you are right, Adam.

I reckon that it was either converted to order for Mr 'JC R-H' in 1937 or that it was purchased from AG Parker's catalogue, assuming they were a stock item? (I wrongly mentioned Parker-Hale in my post when I should have said that the receiver is stamped "AG Parker& Co Ltd, Birmingham" and the knox form is stamped "AG Parker, Bisley Works, Birmingham AGP").

I too thought that the star on the buttstock socket was odd but Skip Stratton shows an identical star on a 1928 BSA (Page 13). The receiver is Mk III* as it does not have the slot for a magazine cutoff. It could be a transitional model between MkIII and MkIII* though. Stratton doesn't even list any BSA Y prefix serial numbers for 1915 and only refers to W,X and Z for that year. I'm sure you are right too in saying that a military conversion would have had conversion stampings on the socket.

I've checked the version numbers of the components in Stratton's book and everything points to 1915 (eg second variation trigger guard with swivel boss; first variation cocking piece; second variation rear sight protector etc)

The initialled marking disc and matching oiler suggest "proud owner" to me. The rifle has certainly been cherished judging by the superb woodwork with very few dings and the absolutely mint bore.

There is no ".22" on the mag case and sadly no unit markings on the reverse of the stock disc!

I also omitted to mention that two holes in the right hand side of the fore end have been plugged. One is half an inch below and half an inch to the rear of the rearsight protector and the other is level with and three and a half inches to the rear. It looks as if some "accessory" like a Parker-Hale Quickloader was at some time screwed to the side of the rifle and later removed. Any ideas on this?

I can't wait to find out how she shoots.

Brian