Chris Hall

Old spec, £1000+ New Spec, £400 to £600

The crossed swords are Birmingham proof mark. So it could be (and probably is) a De ac proof mark or it could be a actual proof mark. For example the 1953 proof mark is the crossed swords with D on the left and B on the right and the inspector number below. These 1950s proof marks are almost identical to BPH deac marks.

I have a 1936 Rudge myself, to be given one is the find of a lifetime really, they are very, very sought after but spares command a premium and tend to be a little tired. The Rudge club is an excellent source for repro parts and has a limited stock of second hand parts. The Rudge service model was fielded for the trials and I think they would have been a good all round military bike but they were much better at other things so at the start of WW2, Rudge were ordered to stop making motor cycles and start producing Radar sets. So ended the Rudge motor cycle (They did carry on with push bikes and auto cycles for some time after).

If you go upto any of the memorials, it's an honour to clean the plaques with the brasso and cloths in the ammo tins.

TCW are RAF so not just the Army then.

I've got 1988 deac BSA L1A1 with the same problem. I think they just removed the bolt and left the block in place. I don't mind to much as you cant see it anyway and I have another 2 with the bolt so I can't complain.

Uncut would come under section 5 unless it was one of the section 1 modified blocks.

There will be a load more coming on to the market soon, http://www.malcolmharrison.co.uk/auctions/air-and-ground-2-day-tender.aspx

Pacman has a sore throat.

It applies to all basic standards applied by the proof houses of the CIP members regardless of what they refer to.

We've got one of these as our gate guards, XV Sqn, 12 Sqn, 617 Sqn and the Lossiemouth main Gate also have one so there must be dozens of these on bases. The one we have is also seized solid, I had a go at trying to free it but like yours, its going to need some serious heat to free it up.

Out of interest, has anyone heard of the CIP agreement? Also bare in mind that Tenbury guns have been selling these deacs for the last year. If there was a problem, he wouldn't be trading that's for sure. Although the UK law states definite defence to prosecution etc. etc. we are obliged by the CIP agreement to recognise the member states proof marks. Therefor a deac from a CIP member state must be recognised by the UK, there are thousands of CIP proofed live fire arms in the UK that have not seen a UK proof house so is every dealer and individual who sells one of these a criminal also? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_Internationale_Permanente_pour_l'Epreuve_des_Armes_%C3%A0_Feu_Portatives

That's how I was shown on basic and how I still do it, I've never had one come undone.

This one was for sale 12 months ago at Switzers auction and I think it sold for $2500 The lower is from a Inglis Mk2 so doesn't even match.

I suppose that's what happens when you don't address the real problem. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. I've never witnessed or heard of a gun discharging itself, there's always some human factor involved. Address the problem with people and all will be fine. You can ban anything but where there's a will there's a way. More people are killed each year by motor cars than by any kind of weapon, yet there will never be consideration given to banning the car as everybody has access to one.

I think you may have misunderstood me, all the British No.4 Mk1 sniper rifles were by Holland and Holland, no other firm assembled them. The above average accurate rifles were marked TR before being sent to H&H and then H&H rechecked the accuracy and rejected the rifle it wasn't accurate enough. If it passed there test it went through the whole conversion. That's why its possible to see a bog standard No.4 rifle with the TR marking.

We get told 'If it comes in contact with the skin, its scrap' so I suppose its how that's interpreted. I've even seen civilians in the States with MTP too.

I am wetting myself. As far as I'm aware all the British No.4 Mk1s went to H&H for conversion, If a rifle was found to be well above average for accuracy during the sighting in at the production factory, the examiner marked the wrist with a TR. The rifle went off to H&H and then they rechecked the accuracy, if they rejected it, the rifle went back into the pooled stores with the TR mark and off it went. If it was accepted, it went through one of 2 small production lines, both of which used the same (I believe) jigs and gauges. Once the conversion was complete and a scope matched to the rifle, the inspector would mark the T on the body.

Its not beyond the realms of possibility that some one has stamped the number from an official document onto a previously unregistered vehicle to avoid paying taxes etc. In the UK, Licence number dealers would obtain old log books from long scrapped vehicles and stamp their details onto a 'Good' vehicle in order to obtain a new Licence number to sell on for profit. I know similar things happened in France and I'm sure it goes on all over the world.

You know its funny that I've not been issued any MTP, old style or new and yet its available on the surplus market. Sounds about right for the MOD. I ended up in Iceland last year for 24 hours after 3 months in the Nevada desert and all I had (along with another 20 bods) was desert CS95. It was a touch cold!

Its a marshalling wand to marshal the aircraft in. Used at night instead of hands, looks like it must be at least 1950/60s and it possible that the 7 digit number may be part of a NSN as some RAF tool NSNs still kept the old part number prefix.

Read the WD/Co service manual, it has a complete set of instructions to follow, both the correct procedure and an acceptable expedient way.

Try World Wide Arms for a Canadian Enfield No.4 Mk1*, the No4 Mk1 was introduced in 1941 and the 1* a little later (But designed and trialled in the mid war years). They are a decent price and were supplied to British forces to supplement domestic production. If you want an investment then try for matching numbers, if you want a cheaper display piece that may get wet and rust, then go for a cheaper non matching example as you will be less peed off if it get damaged. http://www.worldwidearms.com/popup.cfm?p_n=198047&p_i=198047 You may find cheaper examples by trawling milweb, gunstar and our own forum classifieds.

Hypothetically, it is possible for a design like the STEN (Mk1 to 3) to discharge a round if it was dropped on the butt with the block forward. The probability is slim though as it would have to have enough impact for the block to be forced rearward enough to collect and fire the round, but not to much that the block engages on the sear. A STEN dropped from waist height doesn't impart any where near enough energy on the block to cause this. There's also stories of STENs discharging whole magazines. The fact is that the STEN couldn't discharge a whole mag by accident, in fact it could only ever be possible to fire one round by accident. After the first round had been discharged, the block would travel rearward under full blowback, just like if the trigger had been intentialy depressed. This would mean the block would come to rest against the sear and it would be impossible for a further round to be discharged (Unless the gun or ammo was unserviceable). If any of the STEN series were dropped with the block in the rear and rotated position, a serviceable gun should never accidentally discharge as again, the sear would prevent the block from moving forward. The STEN MkV introduced a new 'Safetly cocking handle MkV' which could lock the block to the body when in the forward position, stopping the block moving rearwards if the gun received an impact. This new handle was retro fitted to many thousands of the Mk1 to 3 guns making a unmodified gun scarce these days. I think the STEN received a unfair rep, yes it was a cheap mass produced weapon, but it was just what was needed at the time.

I can completely agree, it would have been a bit more professional to have had a range officer conducting the demo.