Guessing at a broad arrow mark on a Enfield 2A1

[crowtalks]

I have an Ishapore Enfield 2A1 with a buttstock mark I'm trying to figure out.

Its the letters S and A with a broad arrow in between.

I believe the broad arrow marks were used around the British Empire, but I'm not sure what it actually indicates (I have a Greener Martini with Ds on either side of a Broad arrow and that is an Australian mark).

I found S. A. that indicates Small Arms in post British India, but I haven't seen anything that shows S (broad arrow) A, so I'm thinking it is an Indian government mark.

Does anyone have anything definitive on this mark?

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

I did a little Googling and maybe found the same marking on another Ishy buttstock:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0307/06/lee-enfield-303-smle-2a-308-ishapore-stock_1_947c99d734b6cf96dc8a4ac7610ad262.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lee-enfield-303-smle-2a-308-ishapore-stock&tbnid=MSKqGKbNhRC55M&vet=12ahUKEwiDh8jAorP8AhW-LkQIHSK3BzAQMyhaegUIARCVAQ..i&docid=EhbLFqhTHR5tTM&w=400&h=300&q=ishapore enfield stock marking&ved=2ahUKEwiDh8jAorP8AhW-LkQIHSK3BzAQMyhaegUIARCVAQ



A fellow on the enflield-rifles.com forum opined the following:

"Inspectorate of Small Arms marking. Might not show well if stencil paint, but the arrow is actually an I with an arrow head above it."

However, he was referring to a mark described as a "circle containing the letter SA with an arrow pointing upwards between the two letters" -- maybe this is a variation of the same marking?

https://www.enfield-rifles.com/buttstock-markings_topic9918.html

Here's another variation that was stamped more deeply into the wood:

 

[crowtalks]

I did a little Googling and maybe found the same marking on another Ishy buttstock:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0307/06/lee-enfield-303-smle-2a-308-ishapore-stock_1_947c99d734b6cf96dc8a4ac7610ad262.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lee-enfield-303-smle-2a-308-ishapore-stock&tbnid=MSKqGKbNhRC55M&vet=12ahUKEwiDh8jAorP8AhW-LkQIHSK3BzAQMyhaegUIARCVAQ..i&docid=EhbLFqhTHR5tTM&w=400&h=300&q=ishapore enfield stock marking&ved=2ahUKEwiDh8jAorP8AhW-LkQIHSK3BzAQMyhaegUIARCVAQ

View attachment 1125610

A fellow on the enflield-rifles.com forum opined the following:

"Inspectorate of Small Arms marking. Might not show well if stencil paint, but the arrow is actually an I with an arrow head above it."

However, he was referring to a mark described as a "circle containing the letter SA with an arrow pointing upwards between the two letters" -- maybe this is a variation of the same marking?

https://www.enfield-rifles.com/buttstock-markings_topic9918.html

Here's another variation that was stamped more deeply into the wood:

View attachment 1125611

There dose look like a separation between the I and the arrow when i look closely, which would make it SIA, with the arrow above the I, and I read somewhere this represents India Small Arms.