SMLE butt...

[18th Battalion]

...disc.

If I'm remembering correctly, one of the production economies for the SMLE MKIII* was the omission of the butt marker disc?

I have a mid 1918 manufactured MKIII* with all matching serial numbers, including the butt, and it has a butt disc; was the practice re-adopted and the disc added to my rifle post war?

[Gunner Bailey]

I think Butt disks came and went at various times but were probably consistent during the war. Bren guns are the same. Butts come with and without disks all the time.

It's possible that WW1 rifles have had replacement butts over the years and these did not come with discs.

John

[4thGordons]

I think Butt disks came and went at various times but were probably consistent during the war. It's possible that WW1 rifles have had replacement butts over the years and these did not come with discs.

John

I think John is correct. There seems to be little obvious pattern in this.

I have early rifles without disks and without inlets for disks (assume this means replacement butt) and I also have later war rifles with and without (some with butts that are not inletted and some that are with the disk missing)

There is some debate as to when precisely this happened (I have been trying to track down official documentation) although the date usually cited is late '15/early '16 which is contempraneous with the MkIII* production simplification but I am not 100% sure it was part of it. The other reason often given is the concern with providing intelligence to the enemy. Both of these makes sense but I have struggled (with a cursory look) to find official documentation of either

Regarding surviving rifles, several factors are probably in play:

Existing butt-stocks with inlets for the disk were used up in production - sometimes with an empty hole, sometimes with a blank disk

Some rifles appear to have had disks removed post 1915

Some butts were produced without inletted disks (later)

Use of disks appears to have been reinstated in the 1920s and 30s (early pre production No4 rifles had disks even)

On top of which, as disks are easily removed (or added) "unofficial" changes in the past 90 years come into play too.

Blank disks (and stamp sets) are easily available, as are used disks with genuine markings so I always treat information of butt-disks (in the absence of any provenance) with some skepticism. It is usually pretty easy to tell if a disk is a recent addition - but not always.

Chris