BSA Commercial .303 Identification

I'd like to push back a bit on the cheap sporterization angle. I understand that many SMLE rifles were sporterized during the interwar and postwar periods, and a lot of those were inexpensive conversions. However, a few structural features of this rifle make me question whether it fits the typical “cut-down surplus sporter” pattern.

First, the rifle has a full Mannlicher stock with a fitted nose cap, not a shortened military fore-end. The wood appears to have been made as a full stock from the start rather than cut down from military furniture. This is not a cut down original front end.

Second, the magazine sits flush with the stock and uses a hinged floorplate rather than the standard detachable SMLE magazine. That requires different bottom metal and stock inletting, which seems like significantly more work than the typical cheap surplus chop job. As far as I understand, there should also be a rear trigger guard screw inside the guard, which this seems to lack.

Third, the buttstock geometry doesn’t match a standard SMLE stock. I actually tried fitting a No.1 Mk III buttplate and it is too small for the outline of this stock, which suggests the butt was not simply reshaped from military furniture but was made from a different blank. The butt end of the stock is simply too big for this to be an SMLE buttstock.

Finally, this is high quality walnut and appears to be hand checkering, not a garage cut down sporterization of an SMLE.

I’m not claiming it’s a factory BSA sporting rifle, but the construction details seem to suggest a purpose-built sporting stock and bottom metal fitted to an Enfield-pattern action, rather than a simple cut-down SMLE.