Khyber Pass Copy - Identification

Identification

Khyber Pass rifles are usually copied exactly from a "master" rifle (which may itself be a Khyber Pass Copy), markings and all. It's not uncommon to see Khyber Pass rifles with numerous errors and particular identifying factors, notably:

• Spelling errors in the markings (the most common of which is EИFIELD for ENFIELD)
• V.R. (Victoria Regina) cyphers dated after 1901 - Queen Victoria died in 1901, so any rifles made after this should be stamped "E.R" (Edward Rex, referring to King Edward VII)
• Generally inferior workmanship including weak or soft metal, poorly finished wood, and badly struck markings.

Afghanistan was a point of conflict between the British Empire and Imperial Russia throughout the 19th Century, from which it is reasonable to assume that tools and expertise relevant to both cultures were accumulated by native gunsmiths. Hence despite an untrained eye assuming that a reversed "N" or "L" in ENFIELD is simply a transcription error, a toolmaker or linguist will recognise that they are actually the Cyrillic "И" and "Г" characters, with the gunsmith using whatever letter punches he had available.