Lee-Enfield No. 5 Mk 1 question.

No such thing, No.5's were only produced in England using a special lightened receiver, some of these were rebuilt in India at some point. Many fakes and copies have been produced over the years.

- Santa Fe Arms in California

- Golden State Arms Co. of Pasadena, California

- Gibbs/Navy Arms in Virginia

- CYQ marked ones in Australia by a local Gusmith, some people try to pass these off as Greek/Cyprus production.
 
With all due respect to my learned collegues, Long Branch made some jungle carbines for trial purposes. They are marked Long Branch, but have no serial numbers. I had a chance to buy one many years ago, but when I returned to the store that had it, somebody else had already snatched it up. This was back in the late 70's, and it would have cost me $500.00 at that time. I met the man who bought it in the late 80's, and he had turned down offers of $1200.00 for it. If you have a shot at one, it is one of the rarest of Canadian Lee Enfield collectables.
 
LawrenceN said:
With all due respect to my learned collegues, Long Branch made some jungle carbines for trial purposes. They are marked Long Branch, but have no serial numbers. I had a chance to buy one many years ago, but when I returned to the store that had it, somebody else had already snatched it up. This was back in the late 70's, and it would have cost me $500.00 at that time. I met the man who bought it in the late 80's, and he had turned down offers of $1200.00 for it. If you have a shot at one, it is one of the rarest of Canadian Lee Enfield collectables.
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That is true, but they are all acounted for as far as I know. So this one is likely a convert.
 
LawrenceN said:
With all due respect to my learned collegues, Long Branch made some jungle carbines for trial purposes. They are marked Long Branch, but have no serial numbers. ...
Click to expand...


The service requirement for a shortened and lightened No.4 did cause Long Branch to produce some prototypes, but they were never No.5 rifles because that designation was applied only to the final design that actually went into production at BSA and ROF Fazackerley. Even the No.5 wasn't officially called a "Jungle Carbine", so it would be incorrect and somewhat misleading to use that nickname for those very rare Long Branch prototypes.

I hope you get another chance at one of those shortened and lightened No.4 experiments someday, LawrenceN. :)
 
The Long Branch conversion rifles were for the planned Canadian participation in the Pacific War,...but the dropping of the A bomb on Japan ended the need for these conversions ...by then the Liberal government of Mackenzie-King began a rapid demobilization of all Canadian weapons development, and the cutting back on all 3 services..Army, Air Force, and Navy.


I read somewhere...that the Canadian Division that was earmarked for the Pacific was going to be under U.S command..and they would be issued American weapons..ie..Garands, M1 carbines..Browning mg..etc..for ease of compatibility with U.S Forces .....
 
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