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One of the lad's here showed me this beastie, seems his girlfriend was given it by grandad who brought it back from WW2...anyone care to tell me what it is and where it would have been used...looks to me like a cadet style rifle, it IS a .303, detachable mag......but very light and "short"

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Modified Number 4.

That is very interesting - It's been modified more like a target rifle than a sporter (with the free floating barrel) - Is there any sign that it has had a scope on it in the past?

Not that I can see, no holes atop the receiver that I saw..action is smooth and tight....mag is a b#gger to remove...that silly wee release catch.

A 'sporterised' number four.

When you could get them, still in the packing grease, for twenty quid, people committed all sorts of sins on them!

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It's possible that it was a personal possession (modified before the war), and whoever it belonged to, took it with them...?

Hopefully someone will offer some info....

Edit: just seen John's post - John do you know if it would have been sporterised before, during or after the war..?

Given that No.4 production only got into full swing during the war I doubt it was a pre-war mod!

Proof marks are the usual Birmingham civilian ones. Rearsight is wartime economy issue. Serial number looks like it's had digits or letters added at the front. The barrel's free floated, but I think that's purely because the original forend design free floats the barrel anyway.

I'm with John25 and andrewh: it's just another sporterised No.4, nothing special.

I think the American collectors call them 'bubba'd'. If the muzzle hasn't been cut or the bayonet lugs cut off they can often be restored with the right wood.

Yep it looks like a DIY woodworking job.

I suspect that it wasn't like that when he took it back from the war.

The magazine is fiddly as it wasn't supposed to be taken out often, just for cleaning and rifle maintenance. You didn't load mags into the rifle you loaded rounds into the magazine from 5 round chargers, the charger bridge is on the receiver of the rifle so the magazine was seen as an integral part of the rifle. No drop magazine bang in another one with these Chuck.