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The muzzle on my 1914 vintage BSA .303 sporter (sold through the A&N C.S.) is threaded. Is this for a silencer? How common was this and would it likely have been sold this way or done at a later date?



Doesn't look like the rifle was used much over the decades. How it ended up in a gunshop in Glendale California is a mystery to me. The original 5 round magazine was swapped for a 10 round magazine over the years. Anyone have a source for a 5 round magazine to put it right?

That is a fine looking rifle, somehow I do not think it is for a moderator and I very much doubt it is for a muzzle brake! It will be interesting to see what people think.

Well, the Swedish military rifles had threaded muzzles, I think, for a blank firing adapter as their blanks had wooden bullets which were destroyed on exiting the muzzle. It won't be for one of them.

I don't recall a Lee Enfield with a threaded bayonet either.

I'd have thought that, in the UK at least, a moderator would have been less likely in the past than now but I find it hard to imagine anyone abusing an old rifle in this way.

I could wade through Skennerton looking for something I don't expect to find...

Is there anything in the barrel stamps which suggest it might have converted from something else? (but don't ask me what!)

Ah! Is there a forward sling point under the fore end and if not I wonder if it might have been someone's idea to create a full length carrying sling?

There is nothing in the Enfield world that used a threaded muzzle; must be someone's modern alteration.

Never seen, nor ever heard of a sporter being threaded. I believe it is, what you call it, a bubba'd rifle

However, it is very nice looking

Thats a nice looking rifle , it looks like a Long Lee .The magazine looks to be the correct one there would have been a chain link to the mag attached to the floor plate .

I would have thought it was a factory conversion , although I cant explain the threaded muzzle other than a moderator could be fitted .

Dave

The rifle isn't a military rifle converted to sporter, it was made this way by BSA pre WW1. This is the plain version, others were nicer with better furniture, express sights, tang safety, and engraving. I got a copy of the sales ledger for the A&N society from the University of Glasgow, it showed it being sold in November 1914 with a 5 rd magazine to J.W. McGowan Esq. A fellow here in the U.S. who is writing a book about the BSA sporters thought it may have been part of a group bought for the RN but it has no government marks on it so I doubt that very much. It does have the A&N name, the BSA stacked musket trade mark, and the A&N inventory number which is how I was able to track it to the ledger page. I researched the name of the buyer and found 3 J.W. McGowan: an attorney in the 1880s, a captain in London in 1905, and an army private KIA in France in 1915. I wonder if any of these could have been the owner?

I bought a French Unique model 51 semi auto .22 rifle about thirty years ago that had been originally bought in London and brought to the U.S. It also had a threaded muzzle which makes more sense for a silencer than a .303 rifle. I would think that a .303 would require a tube the size of a salami!

Have a look at these BSA catalogues, they might be of help.

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Images/BSA%2 ... alogue.pdf

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Images/BSA%2 ... alogue.pdf

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing the catalog.