One piece stock No. 4 Mk I* conversion

Maybe you had to be there?  Not guessing your age or making any assumptions, however often times when I here this argument it's from someone born in the late 60's to early 70's and beyond.  I'm counting down to 60 this year but I can recall the barrels of Swedish Mausers and M1 Carbines that gun stores couldn't sell and they just tossed them in there to make room for new production bolt actions well into the 80's.  It was also occasionally a matter of economics if you had the old war horse stuck in a closet a mail order stock or even a quick trip to the local 'smith could refresh the old gun a bit. And at least antidotally, there may have been some that had lingering trauma from war time service associated with the rifles in stock format but needed a hunting rifle the change was enough for them to get past prior associations.    Some also were cut or had the buttstock removed to slip into a duffle and if the removed section was lost or damaged a sporter replacement may have been easier to come by 

Back in the mid to late 60's Parker Hale Ltd. bought thousands upon thousands of No4Mk1&2 recievers "In The White" and sporterized the bejezzus  out of them. The Golden State Arms Santa Fe Division in California did the exact same thing with modifying the No4 Enfield as well as Gibbs/Navy Arms. 

A decade earlier a company in Canada called E.A.L. purchased several thousand No4 action bodies, barrels and whatnot from the Long Branch facility and created their own "Sporterized" version that the CAF and Canadian Rangers were more than happy to aquire. The case can be made about the Envoy and Enforcer as well with both being a Sporterized version of the L39A1 & L42A1 since those were for Civilian/Police use only with Parker Hale producing many of the Enforcers. Take into consideration the, "Commercial Lee Speed." A military rifle that was Sporterized by the same hands that were creating its military counterparts in the same facility. The act of Sporterizing ANY military firearm is as old as the day is long and will continue to be so. Accept it for what it's worth...

In the UK, many No4 T rifles were converted to similar spec for target competition's. The "Whitaker Enfield's).

Apparently they were accurate!

Yes, a friend of mine had one.

Not as severely modded as this IIRC though.

I grew up with several walls in our house full of various Service Rifles, mostly of British origin, plus numerous versions of the Ross rifles.  None were sporterized.  That collection would be quite valuable today.  The Ross Match rifle in particular would be worth a lot, even more that the No. 4 (T) rifles Dad had.  

And let's not forget without that trend we would not have anything with the name Weatherby on it 

i do also remember the new hunting rifles were high priced in comparison , i recall all the deer hunting rifles made from milsurps , but seldom did anyone go to anything like this amount of work to do it , i hope it shoots well for you , enjoy it , 

for the record im in my early 70s 

I recently chatted with an individual over his 1943 U.S. PROPERTY No4Mk1* in that he was adamant about having everything fitted with all the metal bits stamped with a square S and that,"his words now," this sh*tty stock with the yellow specks in the wood HAS to be replaced with that dark wood and the piece with the slits cut in it so it can be collectable once more and worth more than what I paid for it. I took the time to examine his rifle and found that it had been FTR'd some time in 1947 and that the barrel had been changed to a M47C stamped 5 groove but it appeared that the  Beechwood stock set was original to the rifle. After explaining how the FTR worked and that what had been done at the factory level and that he should leave well enough alone. He thought about that for a moment and then went out and bought every metal part with a Savage stamp on it, found a walnut stockset with the slits in the upper hand guard and as final touch, found a wore out 2 groove barrel to replace that, "his words again" that hideous and not correct to MY rifle junk barrel. The gunsmith hired to do the work charged this individual over $700.00 in just the labor but, this individual now has a Period Correct 1943 No4Mk1* that he currently has on consignment at a Collectors Warehouse of antique firearms with a Buy It Now price of $2000.00. I asked if I could have that hideous 5 groove barrel and he simply handed it to me and said do whatever you want with it. That barrel is on my Faux Parker Hale currently. This is the issue with collecting the Lee-Enfield rifles in that people today are overlooking What it Was and hyper focusing on What It Needs To Be, for it to be collectable by adding Period Correct pieces, forgetting or not even realizing that those rifles were assembled with whatever pieces were directly in front of the person assembling that part of the rifle at the time it rolled down the assembly line. Especially if it was sent to Fazackerly for Refurbishment. The Sportification of a military rifle, IMHO was derived by the actual producers of those firearms so that those who were once charged with operating them in their respective military configuration could now operate and handle them in their new civilian applications. We have places to properly view original and unmolested military firearms and we also have had firearm manufacturers that took alot of military firearms and Sporterized them. We also have the Backyard Gun Smith that went one step further to produce what the OP to this thread has shared with us. Do not criticize the individual or their firearm of choice be it, Collectable, Original Military application, or Sporterized.  Accept it as it is...