1942 dispersal smle* build

[Baltimoreed]

Bought this poor old soul as I don’t have a British rifle other than a Aussie Cadet. It’s a 1942 ShtLE II* B dispersal rifle. It was missing most of the metal parts from the rear sight to the muzzle plus the forestock was whittled down to eliminate the bbl band and nose cap mortises. I found a semi inlet forestock and a bunch of springs, plugs and screws and started messing with it. I butchered the inlet but got the forestock on, stained things to match the butt and assembled it. It was a pita but now I can try to work up a load and hopefully it will shoot. It seems awfully tight with no bbl movement which is not the way these are supposed to be set up.
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[Der Gebirgsjager]

Always nice to see a restoration, and the SMLE is one of my favorites. But, you've got me...what is a Dispersal rifle?

DG

[Baltimoreed]

My understanding is that because of the intense German bombings of it’s industrial hubs in the bigger cities Britain dispersed it’s military production to smaller shops and factories across the country. Hence the term ‘Dispersal’. They also thought that using a ‘B.’ to identify a BSA [built by other manufacturers] Mk3 would somehow confuse the Germans?? My old rifle is a 1942 dated No1Mk3 ShtLE II* with the letter ‘B.’ instead of BSA. There’s a better explanation on the Enfield forum.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Thanks, Baltimoreed. Never too old to learn. I consulted a couple of L.E. books I've got, but couldn't find that term.

DG

[MrHarmless]

Nice! I just got my furniture set for an SMLE un-bubba-ing I'm planning to undertake. Prestigious Wood Stocks in Canada-land if anyone is looking for something similar!

287391

[2152hq]

The one and only factory making rifles for the British armed forces in 1940 was BSA.
In the Fall of 1940, the BSA factory was bombed and essentially put out of production. What was salvaged from that factory (Small Heath) was 'dispersed' to several locations around Birmingham to continue the production of the No1MkIII and then No1MkIII*.
The N04 was not yet in production.

The rifles were made up of parts salvaged from the bombed SmallHeath facility, from parts scavenged from other sources, from scraped & unservicable rifles, from just about any source of components available.
The recv'rs will generally have 'B' for the mfg'r marking on the socket.
Some say it's a secret code for the dispersed mfg'g idea.
Others have said it was meant as 'Birmingham',,the gun mfg sector of that City in which the mfg of the rifle continued.
Take your pick.

The yr/mfg on most all of these will show a similar yr stamp depth of the character '19', But the actual yr (40,,41, ect) are hand stamped and not always the same size or correctly placed.

The rifles are generally a mix of Enfield, BSA and even other SMLE mfg'rs parts and from earlier eras as well as they were assembled as best they could under the conditions of War and constant bombings.

These are not to be confused with the 'Peddled Scheme' SMLE production of WW1.

Nice job and save . Good to see one come back to life again.