enfield questions with pics.

shelby78

shelby78

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Kingston, Ontario
I just picked up this enfield today. I,m told its a No1 mark3. The barrel is 22 inches. Take a look at the front sight. Would it be right to assume this gun has been rebarreled. Also it has a flush mag and i,m told factory was 10 rounds but it doesn,t look like this will hold 10 shots (maybe 5)

Any help or guesses would be great. the barrel,bolt and frame all have the same serial# Thanks for any help.

enfield.jpg

enfield1.jpg

enfield2.jpg

enfield3.jpg

enfield4.jpg

enfield7.jpg
 
The smaller capacity mag and the front sight tell you this is a Parker Hale rifle, a factory-made sporterized Lee enfield, not a bubba. I can't say if normally you'd see a onte-carlo-style butt, which yours doesn't look like... Others will know more than that... Nice find,

Lou
 
The short mag is 5 shots. I have several which I put on a couple that I bought sporterized. maybe you can pull out the bolt and put a pic of it on to be sure it is a No.1 MkIII. The cocking piece on most No.1's I've seen are round and yours looks like you would find on a No.4 mk1. I am no expert though but I own several No.4's.
 
I like sporters, providing that the workmanship is top notch. This rifle appears to be a Parker Hale conversion of a military rifle into a sporter. The conversion looks to have a replacement barrel. The front sight ramp is missing the protective hood, but it's factory. Parker Hale made these into good quality affordable hunting rifles which shoot very well. When the rifles left the factory, they usualy did have a nice new forearms and Monte carlo butt stocks.

I would hazard to guess that some previous owner replaced the fancy stuff with this modified ex-military set. It is Sht LE Mk.III wood, I can see the plugged cutouts for the rear sight protector.

The quality of workmanship on the wood is not up to snuff as to that of the action, and stands out, in my eyes. Not wanting to seem to be critical of your prize (good find by the way), but several on-line retailers have new made sporter wood sets. Usualy old stock and slow moving so can be had at bargain prices. Not exactly the same as the Parker Hale set, but of the same style. A new woodset would really dress the rifle up. The metalwork would no doubt clean up well as it looks to be just surface rust, a careful cleaning with the use of gun oil and fine steel wool might bring it right back up.

Cocking piece is correct, lots of No,1s had them. This design was also used on No.4 rifles, and although they they look the same, they are not interchangeable between rifles, .
 
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Well for $25 i can,t complain i guess. Good eyes on the wood lableing. I want critical as thats the truth :) . Heres a few more pics. Wonder if they could of stamped the gun anymore?

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Actually it looks like a Mark1 no3 or 3*. The later mark 3's have the same cocking pieces as the no4's. It confused me once as well so don't feel bad.

I agree that it looks like you have the front of of a Parker Hale,the lowest model on the food chain. The less said about that awful stock the better. Fortunately it can be easily replaced.

I don't think you have the Parker Hale barrel though only the front site.

I have one of the top of the line Custom no 4 Parker Hale's and it is an awesome rifle. It has beautiful walnut stock a custom PH barrel and was drilled at the factory for a PH scope mount(and then again by bubba with a hangover for weaver mounts but what can you do).
It is as ice as a Weatherby with all the nice touches like endcaps and checkering. It is capable of 1MOA with the right cartridge and someone else firing it.

Yours is more the proletariat deer rifle but is still a very nice find.
If you want the 10 round mag all you need is to find an Enfield one.
You are now the lucky owner of the only centrefire rifle in Canada that can legally hold 10 rounds.
 
englishman_ca said:
The quality of workmanship on the wood is not up to snuff as to that of the action, and stands out, in my eyes. Not wanting to seem to be critical of your prize (good find by the way), but several on-line retailers have new made sporter wood sets. Usualy old stock and slow moving so can be had at bargain prices. Not exactly the same as the Parker Hale set, but of the same style. A new woodset .
Click to expand...

You would'nt have a link or 2 to the online retailers would you ,I have a Lee Speed thats crying out for a decent walnut stock, I've had a look at great American gunstocks and a couple of other similar places (boyds and richards micro fit) but there are quite a few horror stories as to the quality of the wood and the inletting from these places .
 
The barrel is an original military one that has been shortened and a new sight ramp fitted, but by the markings appears to have been replaced at the Lithgow factory in July 1951. No doubt a post war refurb, who knows, this might even be the second barrel to be installed. What is the condition of the bore, probably good if it was cleaned and cared for by its civvy owners.

Not sure if I am allowed to post hot links to the retailers, they are not sponsors of this board. But try searching for and poking around on sites such as Marstar, Springfield Sporters, E-gunparts.
 
Thanks for all the help guys. I never liked the look of the long wood guns but if i found one i probly wouldn,t cut it. I was happy to find a short gun like this.
Starting to see why poeple like the guns and it has a very smooth action and feel,s pretty good(other than short lop)

The rifling is very good and deep! Think its time to get out the sandpaper and steel wool. Think i,m gonna try to find some waterlox for the wood unless i hear a bad reason for it.

I think I,ll hold onto this on for a nice beater gun after i clean it up. Thanks again for all the help.
 
I have the exact same gun with the exact same stock and very sim. stamps all over it. It works great and a true killer. Mine has the longer barrel (not so loud as the short barrel) and the 10 shot clip. fun gun enjoy.
 
bdft said:
The Aussies knew how to make guns. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how accurate it is.
Click to expand...

I have it on good authority Back in it's day this would have been the type of rifle that the Local Australian Government would have given landowners who bought a section of land so they could maintain the wild goat, pig, and other critter populations.

And that was not long ago.
Times sure have changed.

Nice find. :)
 
I have a Lithogow No1MkIII* like that, same age, full wood that made it through WW1, WW2 and was FTR's in Autralia in '54. Damn good shootet but I don't like the sights on the No1, so a safe queen it is.

I'd say your barrel has been shortened, so you don't have a restoration canidate.

Cheers

Sneakycanuck
 
englishman_ca said:
The barrel is an original military one that has been shortened and a new sight ramp fitted, but by the markings appears to have been replaced at the Lithgow factory in July 1951. No doubt a post war refurb, who knows, this might even be the second barrel to be installed. What is the condition of the bore, probably good if it was cleaned and cared for by its civvy owners.

Not sure if I am allowed to post hot links to the retailers, they are not sponsors of this board. But try searching for and poking around on sites such as Marstar, Springfield Sporters, E-gunparts.
Click to expand...


I'll second these comments. Nice find 1916 lithgow that has a 1951 barrel and has been sporterized by Parker Hale. There is no need to try to de-sporterize it.

I would look on the e-gunparts Numerich website and get a new set of wood, not cut and refinished military but a proper sporter stock (and not plastic please) then clean up the metal bits and your have a fine sporter.
 
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