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I've shown this rifle previously on this site: A BSA base model Lee-Enfield sporter made on a Long Lee receiver and barrel with a carbine bolt. I consider it my mystery rifle as I haven't been able to resolve who the purchaser was, why it was bought in November of 1914 and how it ended up in California. I have done a blog post about it if anyone is interested in what I have learned so far and has some suggestions of potential avenues of research from this point.

http://citizengrouch.blogspot.com/2013/ ... rifle.html

You might have a long search. Thats an extremely common type of rifle that was - in those days - sold over the counter at big department stores, let alone gun shops.

I think you've also not realised the full extent of your search. You have been looking for names in the British mainland census, but don't forget that these rifles were sold by mail order all over a vast Empire & Commonwealth. The chap you are looking for could be in Africa, India, the Far East, Australia - or even close to home in Canada.

A couple of the theories people have given you are not really plausible. There was no particular shortage of military rifles in 1914, and the only record of sporting rifles being impressed into military service was with the very large calibre hunting rifles used to try to pierce german steel loophole plates. A few officers did take scoped and unscoped hunting rifles to "hunt Huns" in the early war years, but that practice would have ended once the war started getting serious from 1915 onwards.

The silencer threading is simply a modern butchering of the rifle. Silencers weren't offered in gun catalogues of the time, and no other rifle is known to have this as an original feature.

I had a quick read of your blog..... I then did a free search on www.ukcensusonline.com Using a wildcard search (J*) for the first name, it returned 488 J McGowans on the 1911 census.

Rearlugs wrote:The silencer threading is simply a modern butchering of the rifle. Silencers weren't offered in gun catalogues of the time, and no other rifle is known to have this as an original feature.

Maxim silencers were first marketed in 1909 and they were popular on all sorts of sporting rifles. I have a post 1906, pre 1914 Marlin 1892 (serial number records are incomplete to narrow it further) factory screw cut for a Maxim silencer....

Likewise, I have seen several vintage sporting rifles with the same feature. My friend has a Cogswell Harrison so done.

I have an old 1937 catalogue from the Midland Gun Company showing a similar BSA sporting rifle:



And a photo of a maxim silencer on a service rifle
http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ ... es-manual/

Thanks for the comments and observations! I think the search was narrowed a bit as it was sold through the A&N Cooperative store, were there multiple locations in 1914? Also by searching for a J.W. McGowan it also narrowed the search compared to J. McGowan but as was pointed out, this wasn't an unusual name for the time or location. As I wrote in the blog, it is something that will most likely never be resolved with any certainty.

rufrdr wrote:Thanks for the comments and observations! I think the search was narrowed a bit as it was sold through the A&N Cooperative store, were there multiple locations in 1914? Also by searching for a J.W. McGowan it also narrowed the search compared to J. McGowan but as was pointed out, this wasn't an unusual name for the time or location. As I wrote in the blog, it is something that will most likely never be resolved with any certainty.

Although the Army & Navy only had one flagship London store at the time (it survived until recently as multiple branches until bought up and now part of another group), it offered a global mail-order service. It was actually set up to distribute military goods and then domestic goods to British subjects all over the Empire. They issued huge catalogues, and a person in a far-off country could order a complete household furnishing to be delivered. You could order rifles and ammunition the same way.

Hence, unless the sale record specifies a mainland British address, the rifle could have been sold anywhere in the world.