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No4 Mk 1

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bubba ho tep View Drop Down
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    Posted: February 25 2023 at 3:20pm
Was at the SOS/NGD shows in Louisville KY today and yesterday. Took a young guy today whom is a budding collector. He had a want for a nice No4.  We found a complete matching No4 Mk1 and he haggled it from $795 to $650.  It is by all appearances near mint in and out.
     So got looking at it and it's just marked M.1944 on the socket with a serial prefix of B U .  Me not being a No4 expert by any stretch am not up on whom actually made this rifle. No FTR mark anywhere and appears to be as issued.  So what maker is this ?. There is a tiny century import stamp by the bottom triggerguard screw on the socket and UK 303 brit on the receiver  - very small as well.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shiloh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 25 2023 at 4:57pm
Royal Ordnance Factory Maltby


Lead from the front; eliminate all obstacles...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Canuck Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 25 2023 at 5:37pm
A Maltby made rifle.
Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually
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bubba ho tep View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bubba ho tep Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 9:50am
Thanks guys. My suspicion was Maltby due to the 'M'. Just was not plain to find out in my old Skennerton book.  My buddy said the NRA site shows No4's with the BU prefix were largely airdropped to french resistance before D Day. That may explain it's fantastic condition. Overall I think he got a bargain for the complete match , superb original finish on metal and bore. His wood looked as though it may have been rubbed down with some solvent to remove factory grease - which grease is evident on some metal parts still. But no sanding  Seeing the prices some tropes were asking at the show for mismatch beaters to bitsers even he did very well indeed. 
      The little coaching I helped him on haggling paid dividends , and he got a great rifle that was minimally monkeyed with. Hard to find any No4 in such period original trim.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Honkytonk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 11:05am
That works out to aboot $885 Canadian, which seems like a very nice deal. Well done!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote paddyofurniture Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 11:46am
In this part of the States, North Carolina, a rifle like that is about $1000.00
Always looking for military manuals, Dodge M37 items,books on Berlin Germany, old atlases ( before 1946) , military maps of Scotland. English and Canadian gun parts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 11:47am
Its probably one of the Cache of resistance rifles recently imported.
There are a couple of owners on here, one in France who got his locally!

RE the wood & metal.
Not sanded is good, Thumbs Up don't sand it!

You can easily clean any grease with a little denatured alcohol on old T-shirt patches.
Once done, if you go that route, re-oil the metal with any good gun lube of your choice & the wood gets hand rubbed with a few coats of RAW Linseed oil. Everything will be bone dry, but at least not gummed up with old grease.
NOT THE HOME DESPOT rubbish, go to Hobby Lobby & get an 8oz bottle of the Real McCoy from the art & painting dept. There are several threads on here detailing restoring & rejuvenating old dry wood.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shiloh Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 11:55am
Your buddy got a nice rifle, havn`t seen any up here for sale yet....Unhappy

And probably won`t any time soon.

Lead from the front; eliminate all obstacles...
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bubba ho tep View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bubba ho tep Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 1:18pm
$1k  ?.  ouch !. 
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bubba ho tep View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bubba ho tep Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 1:20pm
Originally posted by Shamu Shamu wrote:

Its probably one of the Cache of resistance rifles recently imported.
There are a couple of owners on here, one in France who got his locally!

RE the wood & metal.
Not sanded is good, Thumbs Up don't sand it!

You can easily clean any grease with a little denatured alcohol on old T-shirt patches.
Once done, if you go that route, re-oil the metal with any good gun lube of your choice & the wood gets hand rubbed with a few coats of RAW Linseed oil. Everything will be bone dry, but at least not gummed up with old grease.
NOT THE HOME DESPOT rubbish, go to Hobby Lobby & get an 8oz bottle of the Real McCoy from the art & painting dept. There are several threads on here detailing restoring & rejuvenating old dry wood.

Part of my collecting credo has always been NEVER muck up the wood...NEVER. It drives me nuts when I see guys "cleaning" up their finds and include sanding and chemical "cleansing" of the wood to be an improvement. It does the exact opposite !. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 26 2023 at 6:35pm
I won't go any stronger than the denatured, particularly if there's a lot of half removed cosmolene in there.
Even my La Brea Tar Pits special I just heat soaked it (paper towels black trash bag "Dustbuster van" parcel shelf) It was literally sweating old filthy rancid oil. I think I saved it from turning to punkwood. I did use some Murphy's oil soap, but that's designed as a wood cleaner, nothing nasty in it.

I've never sanded a stock.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dragunov Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2023 at 4:16am
I go to one or two shows a month here in Central Florida. When I do see a nice, all matching No.4 it generally in the $900 range. So, I'd say your young friend did well. Heck, I regularly see vendors pushing mismatched bubba "cut-downs" for $700, and holding firm thinking they are the only girl residing in the lumber camp.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Goosic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2023 at 8:37am
$1100.00 out the door for this all matching and unfired 1944 Maltby made No4Mk1 and I truly believe it was money well spent...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Honkytonk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 27 2023 at 10:55am
Not being a collector, I have never had an issue with stripping the ancient goo (who knows who, what and when it was applied?) and starting a new cycle of linseed oil. I will say I've also never sanded a LE stock, but have buffed with xxx steel wool before and in between linseed applications.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RustySurplus Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 28 2023 at 3:49pm
Hey guys Bubbas buddy here so to put everyone at ease there was no sanding done on the rifle. (I will upload some photos if I can figure out how.) But at some point someone did stick a piece of blue piece of tape on the stock thanks to bubba showing me a trick I was able to get the the adhesive mark off the stock without harming or damaging anything.

As I said I’ll post some photos when I figure out how from what I’ve gathered up it’s just a 1944 Maltby which in my personal opinion looks in great shape but I’m definitely no expert. It even has on the sling what I believe to be a Solider ID followed up by initials but I’m 100% willing to be wrong/corrected on that.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 28 2023 at 7:06pm
Welcome aboard.
Best sticky stuff remover I've ever found is "goo gone".
It's things like orange oil based & so actually good for wood.
My worst ever sticky stuff was some antediluvian masking tape type stuff from god knows when. It was used to bundle a bunch of leather bayonet sheaths together.
The paper backing had completely turned to dust leaving just the rock hard dried out adhesive.
I swabbed it with goo gone every night for a week & then it finally moistened up enough I could wipe it off. You can see it in the top image at the metal top of the sheath.
The bottom is after a restoration.



Don't worry about being given grief we don't do that here.
There are a few tricks to become familiar with if you decide to strip down the rifle beyond pulling the bolt & unscrewing the head, pulling the magazine & fishing the spring & follower out though.
We can help you not to make new guy mistakes (some of which can be pretty bad) if you decide to do more.
I covered cleaning & re oiling earlier in this thread. Its not hard, but it is slow & painstaking.

Pictures are simple click here for a link to the how to: There is a size limit so I resize to 1024 X whatever & it seems to work fine.



Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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