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This has come out of the 'Hans Günter Collection'
Enfield Number 4 Mk1 1931 Trials Rifle converted to a 1933 Trails Rifle
This is a double Enfield Trials rifle
Serial no A0169 which appears to be the earliest serial No4 Mk1 trials rifle that has yet been found.
This has just come out of the 'Hans Günter Collection', this very rare R.S.A.F Enfield 1931 Trial rifle rifle converted in 1933 to the R.S.A.F Enfield 1933 Trials rifle
This appears to be the earliest serial No4 Mk1 trial rifle that yet been found with Serial number A0169 (see photos below).
Without sounding too confusing this rifle started life in the 1931 trial's program as a Number 4 Mk1 Trial's rifle, this was in a long line of modifications that stretched back to the Number 1 Mk5 Trial's program of 1922-1924.
The predecessor in this program was the Number 1 Mk6 and that program lead to this Number 4 Mk1 Trial's program in 1931.
In 1933 this rifle was converted again in the 1933 Number 4 Mk1 Trial's program.
With any Trial's program, the rifles are manufactured for testing and evaluation and then troop trials only. Once all the problems were sorted out with these Trial's rifles, only then a full scale production run follows.
During the Dunkirk evacuation the British lost a Huge amount of weapons, so all the stop's were pulled out to find any serviceable weapons still in the UK.
Everything was pressed into service as a German invasion was imminent.
The 1931 and 1933 Trials rifle's were pulled out from deep storage at Enfield and entered into front line service as standard No4 Lee Enfield Service rifles.
There are many differences between these's trial rifle's program of 1931 and 1933 and the Number 4 Mk1 production model which followed ten years later in 1941.
The front sight is 'wasted' but on the 1941 full production model the sight is stab sided. This rifle has a magazine cut off which goes right back to the Boar War Long Lee and the SMLE Number 1 MkIII Service rifle's ( the magazine cut off was discontinued in 1916).
Why the 1931 Trials rifle's were fitted with a magazine cut off is unknown
The full production run of the No4 Mk1 in 1941 did not have a magazine cut off and the magazine cut off was never fitted to any other Number 4 Mk1, only fitted to the Trials rifle ten years before.
The other difference is the rear sight which has a ball bearing in the sight system but by 1941 Number 4 Mk1 full production Service rifle does not have
a ball bearing in the rear sights.
These 1931 Trials and the 1933 Trials rifle's were never scheduled to go into Military service but for testing and evaluation and troop trials only, so in late 1933 these Trials trials were put into deep storage at Enfield.
Without doubt if it was not for the Germans invading Poland, coupled with the BEF landing in France and then Dunkirk these Trials rifles more than likely would have gone for destruction at some point in time.
This is a very rare Trials rifle and what makes this even rarer it is a standard 1931 /1933 Trials rifle, totally original and what makes this even rarer it is one of the very few 1931 -1933 Trials rifle in existence that is not fitted with a No32 telescopic scope and made into a Sniper rifle.
Also we believe this could be possible the earliest, its serial no is just A0169
$6,400.00
£4,800.00
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