he!!o from Canada |
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MarkG
Senior Member Joined: November 30 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 130 |
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Posted: November 30 2018 at 9:44pm |
I just picked up an all-matching Canadian-issue 1917 No1 Mk 3 which has supposedly been in a crate since the 50s, and has enough dried-up, hardened cosmoline everywhere in the action to make that not seem impossible. Unfortunately when I took the action out of the stock, it had some pitting on the chamber, so it's currently at the local gunsmith to be checked out to see if it's safe to shoot: I'm guessing it probably is, if the story is true, since it looks like old rust that was cleaned up and would presumably have been passed by a military armorer as safe to shoot rather than scrap-worthy.
One thing I"m trying to figure out is the stock disk. What does the date on it mean? It's dated 1932, so would that mean the rifle was refurbished in 1932, or that it was issued to a new unit in 1932? The unit designation appears to be RM or RN, so would that make it a naval issue rifle? Oh, and the clip on the rear handguard has rusted away on one side, right around the area where the rust pits are on the chamber. Is it possible to replace those clips without having to find a new handguard?
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MarkG
Senior Member Joined: November 30 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 130 |
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OK, just got it back from the gunsmith and they said the rust pits aren't deep enough to worry about and it didn't explode when they test-fired it, so I'll head out to the range and see how it shoots.
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hoadie
Moderator Group Joined: March 16 2006 Location: Niagara/Canada Status: Offline Points: 9003 |
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Mak: The first thing we need is good accurate pictures of this rifle. We can't tell alot from your descriptions,
Just where in Canada are you? |
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Loose wimmen tightened here
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Shamu
Admin Group Logo Designer / Donating Member Joined: April 25 2007 Location: MD, USA. Status: Offline Points: 17603 |
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There are rear clips & the rivets available on e bay frequently. Just search for SMLE & they'll pop up. Be very careful removing & installing though that wood is frequently fragile.
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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MarkG
Senior Member Joined: November 30 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 130 |
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Here's the stock plate. It's hard to tell whether that's an 'M' or an 'N' on the right. I'm leaning toward 'N'.
Don't have any pictures of the whole rifle, but it's basically a standard No1 Mk3, with the magazine cutoff and volley sights (though the original front sight was broken and the rear missing, so ithey've been replaced with modern reproductions). It kind of looks like it was stamped 3* at some point but then the * was crossed out. Certainly it is still in Mk3 form, aside from the missing rear volley sight. Not a very good picture, but the best one I've managed so far: Interestingly, I noticed a '20 on the barrel when cleaning it last night, so I presume that means it was rebarreled after WWI? Got 10 shots out of 10 on a 8.5x11 target at 50 metres, so it's shooting about as well as I was aiming it; need more practice, preferably when it's not 20 below zero outside. I'll try 100m next weekend, but I wanted to check it was going to shoot roughly where the sights were pointing before I tried a longer range.
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A square 10
Special Member Donating Member Joined: December 12 2006 Location: MN , USA Status: Offline Points: 14452 |
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yup - that would mean rebarreled between the wars , it was a late rifle in WWI and most likely saw service in both I & II , the marking almost looks like it started as a mkIII* [that would be correct for 1917] and was converted back to mkIII after [that might also be correct] but there is a lot to be considered we canot discern from only the wrist markings , we need more photos of the rest f the rifle ,
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Shamu
Admin Group Logo Designer / Donating Member Joined: April 25 2007 Location: MD, USA. Status: Offline Points: 17603 |
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I'm guessing a bit here but Issued late in WW1 as a No1 MkIII* returned to No1 MkIII (no star) which is "lined out" during a refurbish? Is it stamped "FTR" anywhere?
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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MarkG
Senior Member Joined: November 30 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 130 |
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That's an interesting idea; I guess it could have been reverted to Mk3 later. It does have all the other normal Mk3 features like the windage-adjustable rear sight and the rounded cocking piece, so they'd have to have changed a bunch of stuff to do so.
I'll try to get some more pictures shortly. Oh, yeah, I didn't see an FTR stamp on there anywhere, just the 1932 date on the stock disk and the 1920 date on the barrel. That said, the rust pitting has obliterated some stamps on the barrel, but I wouldn't have expected that one to be there in any case.
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SW28fan
Special Member Donating Member Joined: July 02 2007 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 2951 |
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he!!o The number may not mean a date as these were supposed to be unit markings. the 5 32 could be 5th battalion 32nd regiment or some such. The practice of unit marking rifles stopped in 1916; the Germans stopped doing it to their rifles about the same time. However it being an Enfield almost anything is possible.
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Have a Nice Day
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MarkG
Senior Member Joined: November 30 2018 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 130 |
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True, it's possible that's not a date stamp, but it seems to be where they put it on older rifles, at least back to the Martini-Henry.
I now suspect it's an 'M', not an 'N' as I found a picture of a Royal Marines disk online which is laid out exactly the same but with different numbers. Of course, it could just be that the butt was damaged and they swapped in one from a different rifle at some point: it certainly does have a couple of repairs where they've replaced small pieces of the wood.
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