[smle addict]

Very nice, Lance! Welcome to the club! I too have a No 5 Mk I, re-fitted as a trials Mk 2 (D5E171/X/8). I bought this around 13 years ago from a prolific collector who was thinning his collection. Couldn't believe my luck when it came up for sale. I have the grenade sight specific for this carbine, and I know where a grenade spigot for this model is, as well. My friend isn't ready to part with it yet, but maybe someday (or so he says...)

The sight came to me by way of the Victoria Trading Company (remember those con-men?), and I remember paying $95 for it. Wish I would have bought them all, but I was a broke army corporal, so one is all I could afford.

Great pics, as usual.

 

[smle addict]

Thanks Lance. I'm not sure the serial number range is a reliable way to measure total production numbers. Skennerton only lists the numbers as "prototypes," with an approximate number of 50. In searching this forum, I found Paul posted a few threads of the No5 Trials with hung trigger. One thread had a picture of a rifle from the Faris collection. This example has a serial number of E6. Pure speculation on my part; but perhaps they pulled these 1945 rifles as needed (for both stocking up and grenade firing), since the trials program was running concurrently with the regular no5 production, as opposed to pulling a sequential set of rifles all at once. Again, purely a wild a** guess.

 

[smle addict]

Hey JB, the sight hooks on the left side of the receiver wall, and the cable wraps under the forend, just forward of the magazine. On the right side, a threaded screw secures it to the other side of the sight.