It has no history?!?!

As I had stated at the start of this thread. There are in fact many a person who honestly believe that these relics of days past have absolutely no history to share if they have never participated in an actual fire-fight. My rifle was on its way to participate in actual combat but was confiscated by German controlled Préfecture de Police as told before. Except for some minor cosmetic dings in the furniture, this rifle looks exactly as it did as it left the Maltby Factory in May of 1944. The Maltby Factory is no longer with us and very few of the parts suppliers exist today but, they can all be remembered by what they gave to the war effort by simply looking at my rifle that exists because of them. That's History at its finest...

Or, "I'd rather have a beat up, scratched up, and worn out rifle then one that has sat in a closet for 100 years because at least mine has a history to it."

The purist will obviously see any and all history in that rifle whereas the new military rifle collector needs only the justification that his or her rifle "looks" like it might have been in a conflict and possibly took the life of the enemy to give it any plausible history without knowing for certain.

I have a No4Mk1/2 that was just a barreled reciever when I found it in a bucket at a gun store. I took it to a machine shop and had it Magnafluxed. No metallurgical issues showed up so I started to restore it as I saw fit to. It is now a spot on replication of a Parker Hale Supreme No4.  Did I erase its history? I know for certain that it was made at the Maltby Factory so, No, I did not erase that part of its history. I know it went through a FTR in 1948 at the Fazakerley Factory but the electro stenciling no longer is present because I purposely cut the top of the recievers charging bridge away to mount the PH A29 scope base. I know that the barrel on the rifle originally came from the BSA Shirley Factory and I know certainly that the cocking piece came from Singer Manufacturing Co in Clydebank Scotland. The current stockset was made by Sile Industries back in the 1960's possibly the 1970's. I do not know what it went through to end up in a bucket in a gun store in Phoenix Arizona.  That part of its history is lost to time.  Its current history is still being written, even though it is sitting in a closet right now...

sapper - i love the MLM its the one that my trainer was made from , one of my favorites and one ive kept after divesting my commonwealth collection , the 22s have a special place in my heart and i think my wife and kids will be the ones parting with those after i depart , 

shamu , IIRC the inch and metric carried over into the SLR , i had a metric belgeon made but never could lay my hands on a brit made which oi always wanted ,