The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - Curious about origin of Lee Enfield No.4 Mk1

highpower3006 · October 25, 2016, 10:21 AM

What you call a wrist band is the butt socket. It is machined as part of the receiver and as was stated, it is not replaceable.

The number on the butt socket matches the number on the bolt, but it is six numbers off of the number on the side of the receiver (LB2880 vs LB2886).

I think that when the numbers were engraved, the operator that did it got a little confused, as the likelihood of serial numbers with as many digits as that has being exactly the same except for the last digit seems pretty odd when going through the random rebuild mix-n-match.

I have a No4Mk1 that still has the original serial number on the socket, but it is stamped so faintly that a new number was engraved on the side of the receiver by the importer. I suspect that when yours went through the FTR they just assigned a new serial number to it rather than trying to decipher what the original might be.

October 25, 2016, 10:21 AM	#6
highpower3006 Senior Member Join Date: July 30, 2011 Location: Savannah TN Posts: 1,221	What you call a wrist band is the butt socket. It is machined as part of the receiver and as was stated, it is not replaceable. The number on the butt socket matches the number on the bolt, but it is six numbers off of the number on the side of the receiver (LB2880 vs LB2886). I think that when the numbers were engraved, the operator that did it got a little confused, as the likelihood of serial numbers with as many digits as that has being exactly the same except for the last digit seems pretty odd when going through the random rebuild mix-n-match. I have a No4Mk1 that still has the original serial number on the socket, but it is stamped so faintly that a new number was engraved on the side of the receiver by the importer. I suspect that when yours went through the FTR they just assigned a new serial number to it rather than trying to decipher what the original might be. Last edited by highpower3006; October 25, 2016 at 10:32 AM.