MGCollectorNz Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Hello all I recently picked up a new bar for the collection but was interested in the fact it has a marlin 10/18 dated barrel is it common for early NESA bars to be fitted with ww1 barrels Gun is number 514012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 My suspicion is that the original factory barrel was replaced at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrylta Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Can you post some photos, I'm sure we all would enjoy them.Darryl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGCollectorNz Posted September 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg Do you know anything about the B.O.L. marking? Nearly all dealer sample BARs I see in the US have this. My 1943 NESA originally came to me with a 1944 dated AOC barrel on it. AOC made replacement barrels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGCollectorNz Posted September 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 The BOL has me stumped I have seen it on at least three other bars in New Zealand and most where imported though the UK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Thanks. I have been trying to find the answer for several years with no luck. Several countries in Europe were given or sold these for post war military aid and were imported back to the US between 1968 and 1986 to become dealer samples and I make the assumption that it was one of those countries where the markings originate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGCollectorNz Posted September 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 I was told by the dealer who imported this on from the UK that it had come from Belgium Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 I was told by the dealer who imported this on from the UK that it had come from Belgium Belgium is my primary suspect as well. Previous thread on the subject - http://www.machinegunboards.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15493 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyardslug Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Just an educated guess (based on years of study of both transferables; DS; and demilled receivers) BOL is the US inspector who approved the rifles. I do not know his name but BOL only appears on NESA rifles. Other NESA rifles have the inspector marks HBS and WS George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 6, 2015 Report Share Posted September 6, 2015 Just an educated guess (based on years of study of both transferables; DS; and demilled receivers) BOL is the US inspector who approved the rifles. I do not know his name but BOL only appears on NESA rifles. Other NESA rifles have the inspector marks HBS and WS George I suspected that as well and contacted Bruce Canfield about it a couple of years ago, he said that it corresponded to no known US marking. Like you I have only seen this on NESA BARs. To be on the safe side I have just sent an email to the Royal Museum of the Belgian Armed Forces in Brussels, hopefully they can shed some light on this one way or the other. Also sent a similar email to Springfield Armory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junkyardslug Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 Here are 2 NESA demills I just pulled out of the pile, one marked BOL, one marked WS. These came out of a scrap yard in New Jersey years ago. They wern't demilled overseas and then brought back to the US as scrap; nor were they the remains of parts kits as they went through the chopper as fully assembled rifles. With all due respect to Bruce Canfield, it corresponds to no known US Markings to him. The records are in the US National Archives, accessible to anyone. Record #156.14 'Records of Ordnance Inspectors at Private Plants'. There was a time I would have made the field trip and dug through records to find this sort of thing, but there are the location of the files, someone just has to go do the grunt work of actually locating the info on the physical paper. Inspections were done at the NESA plant in Crompton, RI; in the Boston Ordnance District Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MG34bar Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 MGCollector, My NESA BAR is number 5198XX (made shortly after yours) and I have had it for more than 35 years. It appears to have the original barrel, which is a NESA dated 6-43. Your gun seems to be one of the earliest made by NESA. Perhaps they were using up spare WWI barrels before the company got fully into production? Mine also has the B.O.L. mark, but I have never been able to determine the source of that marking. Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 7, 2015 Report Share Posted September 7, 2015 MGCollector, My NESA BAR is number 5198XX (made shortly after yours) and I have had it for more than 35 years. It appears to have the original barrel, which is a NESA dated 6-43. Your gun seems to be one of the earliest made by NESA. Perhaps they were using up spare WWI barrels before the company got fully into production? Mine also has the B.O.L. mark, but I have never been able to determine the source of that marking. Joe With all due respect to Bruce Canfield, it corresponds to no known US Markings to him. The records are in the US National Archives, accessible to anyone. Record #156.14 'Records of Ordnance Inspectors at Private Plants'. Odd how that type of detailed information on production guns never made it into Ballou's book yet all the useless detail on experimental guns did. Thanks for sharing that. My NESA BAR is serial number 501024, supposedly manufactured approximately April 1943. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 8, 2015 Report Share Posted September 8, 2015 Reply from the curator at Springfield Armory -"We have a BAR from NESA also marked B.O.L. Also, we have NESA BARs marked W.S., and H.B.T. (or HBJ)in the same exact manner. They all are perpendicular to the production/patent info and serial number, and also include an ordnance symbol above the initials.I'd say you're right, in that they are ordnance inspector's initials. This is just a guess, but I'd say because NESA was a conglomerate of manufacturers making various individual parts, perhaps the receivers were inspected separately, which perhaps explains why other manufacturers' BARs don't have initials stamped like that. Again, just a guess.Also, the NESA BAR contracts went through Boston Ordnance District, whose records are in the US National Archives. I'd bet that the identity of BOL (and WS and HBT) will be in those records as ordnance inspectors." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annihilator Posted September 11, 2015 Report Share Posted September 11, 2015 The RA stamp in front of the receiver indicates an arsenal rework, a lot of arsenal rework BAR i have seen have WW1 barrels from Marlin or Winchester Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embalmer Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 Saw a few h&r m5 flare pistols marked b.o.l for inspector marks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmagee1917 Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 (edited) ???????Ain't hard to figure out with Google , took about 15 minutes .B.O.L. is for Burton Oliver Lewis , Chief Ord. Inspector for the Boston Ord. District 1942-1944.Chris Edited September 15, 2015 by emmagee1917 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 ???????Ain't hard to figure out with Google , took about 15 minutes .B.L.O. is for Burton Oliver Lewis , Chief Ord. Inspector for the Boston Ord. District 1942-1944.Chris Did you mean B.O.L? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmagee1917 Posted September 15, 2015 Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 Ha !!!!!Spent so much time making sure I got his name right I screwed up the initials !Fixed it . Thanks , Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
21 smoker Posted December 17, 2015 Report Share Posted December 17, 2015 Good ole google..ha..My NESA is also stamped B.O.L. with a barrel date of 6/44...D-DAY month...which I always felt was cool...came from Kent Lomont and at onetime was owned by Roger Cox...well traveled BAR... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markEWA Posted April 28, 2016 Report Share Posted April 28, 2016 I'm new to this site and there is some very interesting information here.I have a paper weight made from the upper half of a NESA 1918A2 receiver that is stamped B.O.L.. I always wondered what that meant and now I know. My 1918A2 is also a NESA with a NE marked barrel dated 11-44. The receiver is stamped H.B.S.. I purchased the rifle from the estate of Col. Rex Applegate. I love the BAR and shoot it a couple of times a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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