Parker Hale marks on a full length barrel Enfield No 4 Mk 1?

Fox

Fox

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
49   0   0
Location
Kemptville
A friend has a No 4 Mk 1*, he says it is a Parker Hale and is stamped as such but I cannot find anything about them actually making guns. The rifle is a cut down sporter but only the wood is cut down, the charging bridge is all there and so is the bayonet lug at the muzzle.

Did they refurb guns for the military and stamp them? Or might this be something else entirely.

Thanks
 
Potashminer said:
What you are describing is likely the lowest grade (least expensive) version of the 4 levels that Parker Hale and others did - both for No. 4's and No. 1's.
Click to expand...

So they sporterized them without taking off the military front sight or the bayonet lug? I have never seen a commercial sporter that had a full length barrel.
 
I am also pretty certain that Parker, or Hale, or Parker Hale did actually manufacture a lot of guns, besides "sporterizing" the Lee Enfields. I have a couple that they made, using commercial Santa Barbara actions - a Mauser 98 style receiver. I think, but not certain, even back into late 1800's - black powder era??
 
Potashminer said:
I am also pretty certain that Parker, or Hale, or Parker Hale did actually manufacture a lot of guns, besides "sporterizing" the Lee Enfields. I have a couple that they made, using commercial Santa Barbara actions - a Mauser 98 style receiver. I think, but not certain, even back into late 1800's - black powder era??
Click to expand...

I know that they did, but did they manufacture military Lee Enfields? I have a Parker Hale 30-06 on a M98 action, they are great guns. This just looks too weird to me, a bayonet lug on a Parker Hale sporter rifle, but nothing lists Parker Hale making military guns and I cannot find anything showing a bayonet lug on any commercially sporterized rifle. This thing is just puzzling me, ha ha. My brother in law picked up a Churchill No 4 sporter, they kept the charging bridge but put a raised comb stock and chopped barrel with new front sight. This sporter has a military butt stock, brass butt plate and has the full length barrel with bayonet lug.

It has a really strong looking scope mount that clamps to the charger bridge and ties in to the rear aperture sight mount, it is an older mount.
 
Parker Hale, International Firearms (Century Arms), Interarms all made sporters with the bayonet lug intact. The more you paid the greater the modification was done to the rifles.
 
You most likely have a Parker Hale Standard No. 4. Take a full military No. 4 Lee Enfield. Dismantle it. Throw away the receiver ring, the two hand guards and the two bands. Saw off the lower fore end just at the rear edge of the lower band groove and round it out a bit. Throw away the front part that you sawed off. Reassemble the remaining pieces. Complete with bayonet lugs, front sight protector, etc. Screw on a cheap swivelling sling swivel on the underside front of the fore arm, and you would have pretty much what was a Parker Hale Standard No. 4. Similar was done to create the Parker Hale Standard No. 1. You can probably find pictures or original advertisements on the web. My Dad bought one for me I think about 1968 or so - 16.99 or 19.99 at small town Saskatchewan MacLeod's hardware store. I seem to remember they were endways in a barrel or a box - pick out the one that you want. Parker Hale also made De Luxe, Supreme and Custom versions - for both No. 4 and No. 1 - each level had more and more work and finish done to it - I think by the De Luxe grade, the front of barrel had been sawed off and a ramp sight was installed. Too expensive for us at the time for me to even recall what they were priced at...
 
Potashminer said:
You most likely have a Parker Hale Standard No. 4. Take a full military No. 4 Lee Enfield. Dismantle it. Throw away the receiver ring, the two hand guards and the two bands. Saw off the lower fore end just at the rear edge of the lower band groove and round it out a bit. Throw away the front part that you sawed off. Reassemble the remaining pieces. Complete with bayonet lugs, front sight protector, etc. Screw on a cheap swivelling sling swivel on the underside front of the fore arm, and you would have pretty much what was a Parker Hale Standard No. 4. Similar was done to create the Parker Hale Standard No. 1. You can probably find pictures or original advertisements on the web. My Dad bought one for me I think about 1968 or so - 16.99 or 19.99 at small town Saskatchewan MacLeod's hardware store. I seem to remember they were endways in a barrel or a box - pick out the one that you want. Parker Hale also made De Luxe, Supreme and Custom versions - for both No. 4 and No. 1 - each level had more and more work and finish done to it - I think by the De Luxe grade, the front of barrel had been sawed off and a ramp sight was installed. Too expensive for us at the time for me to even recall what they were priced at...
Click to expand...

This is what I thought originally but could not find any detail about them actually making military rifles.
 
JP said:
Parker Hale, International Firearms (Century Arms), Interarms all made sporters with the bayonet lug intact. The more you paid the greater the modification was done to the rifles.
Click to expand...

Ok, I have never seen pictures of them with a bayonet lug still on them.

He sent me a pic of the marking on the receiver, it has the big S, so I think this is actually a Savage No 4 Mk 1* originally. I asked him to go and check the number of grooves in the rifling too.
 
Fox said:
This is what I thought originally but could not find any detail about them actually making military rifles.
Click to expand...

Parker Hale did not manufacture those original full military No. 4's and No. 1's - they bought them as surplus after the Second World War - no doubt train car loads of them. Original makers of No. 1's and No. 4's might include BSA, Fazarkerly, Maltby, Ishapore, Long Branch, Savage, Lithgow. I think I have here or have had Parker Hale Sporters based on almost all of those original makers.
 
Parker Hale also did match grade full wood No4's and No1's - usually it was properly bedded, the barrel was burnished, the action slicked up as much as allowed, and target sights may or may not have been installed, depending on which match you were going to compete in. These date back to the era when governments wanted people to be able to shoot service rifles accurately. Many were used in NRA (UK) and DCRA matches through to the 1960's. Sometimes the government even supplied the ammo.
 
medium800.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom