"Fianna Fail" thus signifies something on the order of the Fianna or National Army of Ireland. "Fail" means "destiny," as in one of the ancient names of Ireland, "Innisfail," the Isles of Destiny. The National Army marked these rifles with an FF enclosed by a circle, signifying "Fianna Fail." (Exactly when this practice began is less clear.) "Fianna" alludes to an ancient and rather informal military organization that with a slight stretch of the imagination could be taken to correspond to the standing army of a modern country. When the Irish Free State was formed in 1922, most of its military equipment came from Great Britain, including Lee-Enfield rifles. This mark indicates a part of this rifle's history between the two world wars. Just behind the back sight (or here, where it was), the barrel is stamped H.V. "M" was used by BSA as a serial number prefix in 19, so it seems likely BSA reconditioned this rifle for service in 1941 or 1942 and at that time gave it the new serial number M / 2515. No other arsenal's use of "M" corresponds to post WW I dates, according to Stratton's listing of prefixes used by the various small arms factories. During WW I, however, BSA apparently did not use an "M" at all, so that rules out the "M / 25105" as BSA's original 1916 serial number. This low a serial number without a letter prefix would place its manufacture in the very first week after the Mark III* was adopted.īut what about the "M" letter and matching serial numbers? The rifle's collar tell us that BSA made the rifle in 1916. Reynolds has pointed out, BSA was manufacturing about 10,000 rifles a week. This rifle's lack of a letter prefix would make it the 2,316th Mark III* made by BSA in 1916, preceding all the serially numbered ones with letter prefixes. One question is, Which war? Is this a 1916 BSA Mark III* receiver originally numbered 2316? The Mark III* was adopted on January 2, 1916. The number appears nowhere else on the rifle, evidence perhaps that an older receiver and perhaps its barrel may have been converted or reconditioned as part of a new weapon in time of war. If you look closely, you can just make out another number-2316-stamped on the receiver ring but with a line through it, canceling it. M and 25105 are repeated on the barrel and on the rear side of the bolt handle. Stratton (see list of references at the end of this post) stated that everywhere but at Enfield a given range of numbers was limited to five digits (Enfield limited its range to only four digits), so that when 99,999 was reached, the next series would begin with the letter "A" through A 99,999, then "B" through B 99,999, and so on. The serial number on this rifle is M / 25105 (by convention, the slash is used to indicate a different line).
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