Yes, of course take it out for the day, and lift its skirts, because this means it not being 'stood up' ..........
................. in a dusty corner of your gun cabinet
Many, but not all, of our pages carry date information on the various rifles illustrated or discussed, where it has been possible to be sure of data. There are a number of methods by which a rifle can be dated, or at least bracketed between certain years of manufacture. For the latter, dates of introduction of military arms can be located within the Government 'List of Changes' (LoCs) as can dates of obsolescence and of modification or upgrade to later marks.
Basic information on these lines is on site from our Chronology of Enfield genre Training Rifles, Adapters & Cartridges.
You may not necessarily find specific date information within the text of particular pages, but often the images of advertisements or catalogue entries contain some dating 'give-away', such as the year in which a particular rifle achieved a notable competition score by someone, but which data is in graphic format and therefore not 'searchable' by a text search engine. Do not briefly glance over a page and assume that the information you require is not there. It may not be immediately obvious, but careful observation may provide you with the information for which you are looking. Such research is a major part of the joy of owning, collecting and shooting classic or historic rifles.
For BSA and Greener rifles view complete catalogues from 1908 to the mid 1930s on our
As far as civilian rifles are concerned, some manufacturers have their own dating systems, with, for example, prefixes or suffixes to serial numbers providing that information. Anschutz target rifles fall into this category, and their system is given on the page for these rifles.
Quite apart from such dating information as we have been able to provide on many of the individual rifle types included on this website, there are other ways in which you may be able to confirm the date of manufacture, or at least the date of proof, of your rifle. Do remember, though, that date information coded with proof and Proof-House inspection, viewing or identification marks, does not necessarily coincide with the date of manufacture. Because many rifles may have been imported or, prior to sale on the civilian market, have only had military proof marks, then dating from the Birmingham or London Proof House marks needs to be treated with a degree of both caution and common sense. All firearms sold to private individuals in the U.K. have, for many years, been legally required to carry proof marks from one or other of the Proof Houses. This is mandatory, in the interests of public and personal safety, and any imported, previously un-proved firearm or 'Sold out of Service' ex-military arm must be so proved. Rifles without modern proof still regularly appear on the market, having lain in store for decades. This is nothing new, and proof-house date marks from years past may still not indicate the rifle's date of manufacture. However, if an estimate of the rifle's age from other sources closely matches the date marks, then you probably have pinned down when it was made within a year or so.
British and Commonwealth Service rifles can sometimes be dated by their serial numbers and prefixes, and the manufacturing works can be identified by manufacturers' coded leter and number marks. The keenest researchers will search manufacturers' records where such are archived or available. Fortunately, many of these scholars make their work available to the public in reference books, and details of a number of the most useful ones are to be found in our Bibliography. It is worth mentioning one or two books in particular from which much data relevant to this website's subject matter can be sought. 'The Broad Arrow', and 'The Lee-Enfield Story by Ian Skennerton, afford many specifics of manufacturers' and unit codes and proof marks, and of rifles of Enfield origin respectively. For B.S.A. Co. civilian production of target and sporting rifles, then purchase a copy of ' B.S.A. - The Golden Century by John Knibbs. The ISBN numbers for these reference books are in the bibliography. Hitherto, John, who worked for the B.S.A. Company for many years and holds most of those records not destroyed in enemy bombing raids on the factories during the War, has been willing to help date a particular B.S.A. product where possible, and charges a fee which is donated to one or other of his chosen charities. It should be borne in mind that there is rarely a better way to find out more about your chosen rifle than buying one of the marque or model specific books authored by someone who has spent much of their life researching the subject. Such a purchase additionally supports such researchers and their work, and is, long term, to the benefit of us all.
When inspecting your rifle and comparing marks with reference sources, be careful not to confuse date marks, or 'private view marks', with inspectors marks, which usually carry the factory identification, e.g., 'E' for Enfield, under the sovereign's crown, below which is the inspector's identification number; usually two figures such as '39'. This is not a date mark, although occasionally the number may coincidentally seem to relate to one's approximate estimate of the rifle's age; it does not.
