Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors The other Savage 303 - photo heavy

I�ve been reading this forum for a couple of years and made a few posts. I have four 99s and they are my primary hunting guns. My main collecting interests, however, are British military weapons. I thought some of you might enjoy a look and another side of Savage Arms production. Savage was no stranger to making military arms. As we know our beloved 99 started out as a bid to make a new rifle for the US military. During WWI Savage made Lewis light machine guns for the British, Canadian and American armies. In 1939 they started making Thompson sub-machine guns for Auto Ordnance. During WWII Savage made heavy and light machine guns, Thompsons and other ordnance. They also made Lee-Enfield rifles for the British, the other Savage .303.

After the fall of France in 1940 England left a huge amount of its small arms on the beaches of Dunkirk. The Royal Small Arms Factories at Enfield, Fazackerley and Maltby as well as the commercial firm of BSA were in full production but suffered interruptions from bombing. Production could just not meet the needs. The British turned to North America for help. The Canadians had established a small arms factory at Long Branch, a suburb of Toronto. America had a well-established arms industry. Britain was looking for 1.7 million rifles from America. Negotiations were opened with Remington, High Standard and Savage. Ultimately only Savage was contracted and production of the Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1 began at Savage�s J.Stevens facility in Chicopee Falls. The initial contract was for 300,000 rifles and bayonets, later increased to 450,000. The first rifle was test fired at Chicopee Falls in late July 1941. Due to problems with machinery delivery only 1,325 rifles were produced in 1941. Production ran from July 1941 until July 1944. Serial numbers on the Savage rifles include the letter C for Chicopee as the second or third character. The numbers started at 0C1 and after 0C9999 the next number was 1C0001. After 99C9999 the next number should have been 100C0001 but instead the sequence was changed to 0C00001. Total production appears to be 1,196,706 with 40,000 of those going to China as Lend Lease supplies. At some time during production the Lend Lease scheme was set up and rifles produced after this time are marked on the top of the left receiver wall �U.S. property�. The rifles produced under contract are not so marked. The standard rifling for Lee-Enfields was five grooves. Because Savage was already set up to make six groove rifling it was allowed to use six groove barrels. Later both Savage and Long Branch produced two groove barrels. In 1942 some minor production changes involving how the bolt was retained were initiated to make machining easier. This resulted in the designation of the rifle as the No.4 Mk1*. The British use an * to indicate a change from the previous model that is too minor to require a new Mark number. When production ceased all unassembled parts were transferred to the Long Branch plant. It is therefore possible to find Long Branch rifles in original condition with a large portion Savage parts.

This is a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1* (read as number four, mark one star). The WS on the butt stock was added after its military career.

Serial numbers are stamped on the left side of the butt socket. Since this number has five digits after the C it is a post-mil Enfield

Model numbers were stamped on the left receiver wall. In this case the original stamping has been lined through. The large block S is one of two marks used by Savage on the Lee-Enfields. It is followed by the No.4Mk1*. The electro pencil markings indicate that this rifle was converted to No.4Mk2 standards (No4Mk1/3 was the designation for an Mk1* upgraded to Mk2) at the Fazackerley (F) factory during a Factory Thorough Refurbishment (FTR) in 1951.

The ghost ring or battle sight was sighted for 300 yards. The flip-up micrometer adjustable peep sight was graduated to 1300 yards. The grooved knob to the right of the sight, outside the receiver wall is the safety lever. The bar going across the receiver in front of the sight is the charger bridge to hold 5 round chargers (stripper clips) used to reload the 10 round magazine.

This shows the rear of the sight, the cocking knob attached to the rear of the firing pin and the safety lever on the left. Serial numbers are repeated on the rear face of the bolt handle.

The main change between the Mk1 and Mk1* was the method of bolt removal. The piece above stamped 0 is the bolt head, which unscrewed from the front of the bolt. Bolt heads came four sizes numbered 0-3. Headspace was controlled by installing the appropriate size bolt head. The groove at the bottom edge of the bolt head rides on a rail. On the Mk1* a gap was cut in the rail, visible here starting just to the right of the bolt/bolt head joint.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...avage/boltrelease2_zps13870a3e.jpg[/img]
Here the bolt head has been rotated counter-clockwise out of the rail and the bolt can now be withdrawn from the receiver.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...LendLeasemarkings2_zpscadab028.jpg[/img]
This shows the Lend Lease marking left receiver wall.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...%20Savage/magazine_zps58633f19.jpg[/img]
The magazine is a 10 round, double stack detachable box. In practice the magazine was only removed for cleaning, not for reloading. Ammunition was issued pre-loaded in 5 round chargers and the magazine was refilled by pushing rounds down through the top of the receiver.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...avage/Scopemounted_zps68fd9ccf.jpg[/img]
There was also a sniper version of the No.4. Selected rifles were sent to the commercial firm of Holland & Holland for conversion to sniper rifles. The stocks were hand fitted, the cheekpiece added and pads to accept the scope bracket were installed. Installing the front pad required a slight machining of the receiver to be sure the scope would be aligned with the axis of the bore. Thus fitted the rifles were returned to the army where the scopes were mounted, rifle, scope and bracket numbered to each other and the rifles zeroed. Each rifle was issued in it�s own transport chest which held rifle, scope and certain other equipment.

All British companies were given a code number beginning with either N, M or S. S51 was Holland & Holland and all sniper rifles fitted by them carry this stamp on the bottom of the butt just to the rear of the grip portion.

An unknown number of early production Savage No.4s are known to have been fitted up as snipers but never had the final fitting of a scope. Rifle 0C1 is one such. Mine is another. If a scope had been mounted the serial number of the scope would have been stamped on this flat portion of the wrist just under and behind the cocking knob. Compare this early model cocking knob with the later flat, grooved one of the first rifle. It is not known why the Savages were converted but never scoped. Perhaps it was some preference to use British produced rifles. Many of the unscoped Savages, like mine, appear to have never been issued.

When the scope was fitted a small TR was stamped on the butt socket somewhere between the serial number and the trigger guard screw.

In this shot the rear sight is at the very top. The serrated button in the bottom center is the bolt release on the MK1. The bolt was drawn to the rear, the button depressed and the bolt head rotated up.

The rear sight was the same but on the sniper rifle the ghost ring was milled off to allow scope clearance.

This is the rear sight in the raised position to allow use of the peep.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...Savage/MkIMarkings_zpsb62fb3fd.jpg[/img]
This shows the receiver markings and the front scope bracket pad.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...copemountedcloseup_zps5f356612.jpg[/img]
This shows the scope mounted to the rifle. The scope could be quickly detached via the two large knobs on the bracket and remounted without loss of zero. The No.4 sniper rifles were fitted with American M1907 slings, most of which had WWI dates. The No.32 scope was 3.5 power with a horizontal crosshair and vertical post. The sliding eyeshade did not last long as they didn�t retract quite far enough and were very unpopular.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...Savage/ScopeandCan_zpsf8584c32.jpg[/img]
When detached the scopes were stored in a metal case. The odd device in the case lid is the impossible to use adjustment tool for the MkI and MkII scopes.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...avage/RifleinChest_zps7645d1c4.jpg[/img]
With the scope can stowed in the middle of the chest the rifle was nicely protected for transport.

An interesting read.

I did not know Savage produced over 1M Lee-Enfields in the war effort. In fact until tonight I din't know they produced any.

Thanks for posting.

Glued to the inside lid of the chest is an inventory sheet.


Snipers were normally issued the standard 6X32 army binoculars and frequently made use of the 22 power scout�s telescope.

Savage also produced the No.4MkII bayonet shown here with its metal scabbard.

These two bayonets show the two different S marks used by Savage during Lee-Enfield production. The upper is the squared S like the marks on the two receivers. The lower shows the S inside a box. Both marks are found on the various rifle parts as all parts of an Enfield bear the manufacturer�s mark.

The WWII round for the Lee-Enfield was a 174 grain cupro-nickel jacketed flat based round filled with cordite. Cordite is an extruded propellant that looks like strands of uncooked spaghetti. British military designation was MkVII. MkVIIz is the same round but loaded with nitro-cellulose powder. The large box in back was packed with 32 round cartons (CTN) like the one on the right. These are loose rounds. 32 rounds was the capacity of the Bren gun magazine. Ammo was also packed in cartons pre-loaded on chargers and 50 round bandoleers holding 10 loaded chargers. Winchester box on the left is 1943 production.
[img]http://i34.photobucket.com/alb...y%20Savage/two303s_zpsf93731d4.jpg[/img]
And last a comparison of .303 Savage (L) and .303 British. I hope you�ve enjoyed this little presentation of the other 303 Savage.

Very nice, thanks!

Thanks for the lesson. Proof that you can never stop learning.

Savage also produced about 2500 military muskets in .303 Savage for the Montreal Home Guard during WWI.

I need a bayonet for the Montreal Home Guard musket if anyone has one. Thanks, David

Thanks for the education - well done!!

Well done indeed.

Up to now I only had a passing knowledge of Savage's war effort. Thanks a bunch for the lesson!

Interesting piece of history. Thanks for taking the time and effort to put this together.

Rod