Hello,
I'm new to collect just picked up a No.5 enfield this weekend. Just wanted to start with stating i've found this forum extremely helpful!

I used information here to verify (i think) that it is in fact a real carbine, however, it appears that the serial numbers have been scrubbed off the reciever and there is a thick layer of black paint on the barrel and reciever. The bolt, stock and last two numbers on the handguard(?) all seem to match.

I was curious as to why the reciever serial number may be scrubbed, and if anyone can help identify any of the markings. Any info at all would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

G'day Hillehause and welcome to the forums!

I'm glad you found the No5 S/N and survey thread informative, that's what it was designed for. The rifle you have above has a BSA bolt ... Birmingham Small Arms ( M47C ). I can't tell from the your butt socket markings much of what is there to identify the rifle itself, but I would suspect it may be a BSA as well.

The original finish for No5's was indeed a black paint, baked on, called Suncorite, hard to tell if yours is Suncorite or the type applied by the Indians in service - having said that, you might find an Ishapore screw if that was the case.

You need to strip the action body from the furniture and go over the barreled receiver with a fine toothed comb to make out every marking you can find. On the action body you are looking for ...

B ... M47C ... = BSA

F ... ROF(F) ... = ROF Fazakerley.

THe reason for the scrubbed markings is very tough to say though sometimes the Indians or Pakistan scrubbed receivers in refit programs of their own. This may be the case but if it were, the entire serial number ought to be missing. Try and see if you can't make out more of the serial number on the butt socket and if it matches the bolt.

80% sure you have a BSA.

Tiki.

Thanks for the tips! I will be giving the gun a good cleaning and i will see what i can find! Also, what grain ammo should i be running through/reloading?

The rifles were designed to fire the MKVII projectile which was a 174gr round ... you are looking at .311-.312 pills for the most part but some Enfields can be looser and others as tight as .308 in rare cases. I'd try finding something in the 170-180gr first and see what it likes ... 150gr is also acceptable depending on the bore - the No5 is a 5 groove bore.

Best, Tiki.