Hi
Somehow a couple of Enfields seem to have followed me home from the gun show. So far they are playing nice with the couple that I already had.
The pick
of today's litter is an ex-Savage No. 4 that has a nice "F.R 1963 R.F.I." stamp on the wrist. When they did that, pretty much all of the markings went away. It's marked No.4 Mk. 1* and the trigger is attached to the trigger guard. The only way to tell quickly that it was a Savage is the remains of the flaming bomb US Ordinance stamp on it.
So here's one of the minor mysteries. The furniture on the rifle is "interesting" . The butt stock and forestock are both beech. The rear hand guard is walnut and the front hand guard appears to be walnut died beech. As the rifle came to me the whole rifle was mostly coated with a medium walnut tinted coat of shellac. In various places here and there the shellac had done what it often does and headed for parts unknown.
The wood under the butt plate is virgin beech. This rifle never met a mud puddle ever. I doubt it ever saw a rainstorm. Does it not ever rain in India, or do they simply not have any mud?
My basic question here is how all this came to pass. The importer *could* have put all new furniture on the rifle, but at the price I doubt it. Somebody "over there" could have done the same thing last month. Is there any chance that this rifle has been sitting with clean raw wood since 1963? Is shellac a standard finish on a No. 4?
I accidentally spilled a gallon of denatured alcohol on the stock parts and the shellac is history. I *hate* shellac. So I now have "two tone" furniture set for the rifle. I can either bleach the hand guards or use wood dye on the butt stock and forestock. Putting all new wood on a scrubbed rifle that cost $180 is *not* an option. Any other options I'm missing?
I'm still looking for interesting markings. I have not found much on this rifle. The wood is essentially 100% clean. The metal was scrubbed well enough that what's left is going to take some looking.
Bob
Somehow a couple of Enfields seem to have followed me home from the gun show. So far they are playing nice with the couple that I already had.
The pick
of today's litter is an ex-Savage No. 4 that has a nice "F.R 1963 R.F.I." stamp on the wrist. When they did that, pretty much all of the markings went away. It's marked No.4 Mk. 1* and the trigger is attached to the trigger guard. The only way to tell quickly that it was a Savage is the remains of the flaming bomb US Ordinance stamp on it. So here's one of the minor mysteries. The furniture on the rifle is "interesting" . The butt stock and forestock are both beech. The rear hand guard is walnut and the front hand guard appears to be walnut died beech. As the rifle came to me the whole rifle was mostly coated with a medium walnut tinted coat of shellac. In various places here and there the shellac had done what it often does and headed for parts unknown.
The wood under the butt plate is virgin beech. This rifle never met a mud puddle ever. I doubt it ever saw a rainstorm. Does it not ever rain in India, or do they simply not have any mud?
My basic question here is how all this came to pass. The importer *could* have put all new furniture on the rifle, but at the price I doubt it. Somebody "over there" could have done the same thing last month. Is there any chance that this rifle has been sitting with clean raw wood since 1963? Is shellac a standard finish on a No. 4?
I accidentally spilled a gallon of denatured alcohol on the stock parts and the shellac is history. I *hate* shellac. So I now have "two tone" furniture set for the rifle. I can either bleach the hand guards or use wood dye on the butt stock and forestock. Putting all new wood on a scrubbed rifle that cost $180 is *not* an option. Any other options I'm missing?
I'm still looking for interesting markings. I have not found much on this rifle. The wood is essentially 100% clean. The metal was scrubbed well enough that what's left is going to take some looking.
Bob
Last edited:
