The example shown is marked M47C for BSA Shirley and is also browned. Hollands were contracted to produce enough swivels to retro fit all arms found in service and they were provided as an armourer spare part. These war time sling swivels were made by Hollands and are typically browned steel.

The swivel was to be 'low turret' in design so that the sling body would be stopped by the existing magazine loop - this allowed the sling to be 'locked' in a diagonal exit path off the fore end at an ideal angle to wrap the bicep and provide sling position options for better steadying in all positions. There are almost 2 years of rifle production that did not receive this triangular sling swivel at the factory and would have it added in service - especially prolonged Cold War British service - it is still possible to encounter a rifle that was an early discharge / loss that never received the triangular swivel update.

After collating needs and the shooting thoughts of the time, a triangular sling swivel was designed to replace the front trigger guard screw on all No4Ts built after November 1944. The serial would be correct for early 1944 if it started with a '3' - was the '1' added somewhere else?įeedback from the initial service performance at the front (often from prior experienced target shooters) indicated that longer slings with a central mount at the front of the magazine would be preferred. On the right the M47C, date and TR are as they should be - all else is modified, retouched or swapped out The Sante Fe in the center was completely polished and blued by them to make a premium scoped sporter - they removed the original serial from the wrist and added their own by stamping through the bluing (original barrel serial is still present) this rifle may have picked up the fabricated safety spring at Santa Fe. The safety latch style and M47C mark and the SM marked rear sight as as the 1945 examples above. The M47C is typical, as is the date and TR mark. On the left, the scopeless one exhibits all marks as freehand stamps under the blackened surface - except the serial which may be a light stamp or a very precise electro-pencil. Here we have a scopeless and virtually unfired 1944 No4T on the left and two heavily reworked 'sportster' T's (the middle professionally done by Sante Fe) and an American surplus 'bubba' on the right.

No4 mk1 serial numbers