The 7.62mm L1A1 series serial number prefixes similarly denote makers.
LEE ENFIELD RIFLE SERIAL NUMBER LOOKUP SERIAL NUMBERS
More details on serial numbers will also be found in the new book, 'The Broad Arrow'. WW2 production ceased with F39580 and the 1,000 rifle run during the Korean War ran from F39581 to F40580. 1 (S.M.L.E.) proceeded through 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E' and 'F' prefixes before the last rifle F40580 was manufactured in 1953.
After the initial 99,999 rifles, the Lithgow No. 4 rifles, an 'A' suffix was stamped by a repair depot or armourer after the serial number when some parts were found to be non-interchangeable.Īnd of course, with the Canadian No.4 rifles, the letter 'L' precedes the last four numbers as does a 'C' for the Chicopee Falls production Stevens Savage Lend-Lease No.4 rifles and 'J5550' (the drawing number) prefixes the Canadian Lightened No. 4 specs and the 'A' became a suffix to indicate the fitting of some non-interchangeable components. 4 Mk 1 rifles made in the early 1930s have an 'A' prefix to their original serial numbers although many were later upgraded to No. 6 jungle carbines, 'X' was used for a small number of Lithgow No.1 rifles with stainless steel barrels and 'FE' was used for early production Fazakerley No. 'SKN' was applied to factory sectionized models, an 'XP' prefix was used for Lithgow Shortened & Lightened SMLE and No. 22 No.5 trials small-bore target rifles in 1945 and 'DA' for the. Serial numbers of certain Lee-Enfields can serve as indicators of the model and help with initial authentication. The Fazakerley jungle carbines ran from FE1 to FE1000 initial production, then with no letter prefix, followed by A1 to A9999 through Z9999. No.5 Jungle Carbines only have 4 numbers, the Shirley carbines have BB to C? prefixes, last production was post World War 2. Both of these No.4 rifle series commenced with 0L1 and 0C1 respectively. Long Branch (Canada) serial numbers incorporate an 'L' in the serial number while US Savage numbers include an 'C' in a similar relative position amongst the numbers. So early M47C No.4 rifle numbers could be confused with the Jungle carbine in having four rather than five numbers. The only exception to the 5-number sequence for No.4 rifles was the initial BSA Shirley production which ran from 0001 to 9999 then went with A to Z prefixes (A0001 to A9999 to the Z prefix) and some early dual letter prefixes (e.g. Post-war Fazakerley No.4 rifles had PF letter prefixes. Late Shirley numbers then supposedly ran A4000 to A7999 and with PS prefixes at the very end of production. 1xxxx for Maltby, 2xxxx for Fazakerley and for Shirley, 3xxxx, after the letter prefix. Maltby rifle serial numbers commence with a number '1', Fazakerley with a '2' and Shirley with a '3', e.g. The same letter prefix(es) were used by Maltby, Fazakerley & BSA Shirley, A to Z then AA, AB to AZ, then BA to BZ, CA to CZ &c. British No.4 rifles have five numbers, usually after one or two letter prefixes. No.4 and No.5 rifle serial numbers can readily identify manufacturers. So it is possible that it could have been issued and seen service in WWI but nothing I have available can confirm that possibility.Ian knows his cookies. Your weapon is not listed as being part of this test, but it does give us a date for its production in May-June of 1918 ( assuming you have a Winchester). ( A test of weapons to make sure all parts were interchangeable)
I could not find your specific serial number listed, the closest was 328473 ( a Winchester) which on Augwas part of an "Interchange" test of May and June production models. Remington Eddystone made 1,181,908 M 1917 rifles I assume you are also asking about a M1917? Also a Winchester? Only a small percentage of serial numbers are listed. They are useful, but far from comprehensive list of serial numbers. These books were published by the SRS in the late 1990s. My source is the Springfield Research Service(SRS) books "Serial Numbers of U.S. Texas Military Forces Museum 4 people found this helpful Then you could try the unit records for that particular unit but most often there would not be a record to an individual soldier, just " 70 rifles issued to Company A, 1st Infantry Regiment on such and such a date" If you could get the unit information from the Springfield Research service ( they do provide information for a fee) assuming your serial number was in their files. It would be very difficult to trace it to an individual soldier. So it appears likely your weapon was issued in August 1918 to some Army unit and possibly saw service in WWI. So close to the actual serial number you needed! According to the Springfield Research Service Serial Numbers book Volumes 3 and 4: serial number 295360 was issued on to Company F, 124th Infantry Regiment, and serial number 295361 was issued on to Camp Wheeler, GA. Three companies made M1917 rifles, the Winchester company made the fewest with a total production of 465,980.
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