With the amount of old rifles coming from Russia where are the old canadian rifles.
- Thread starter Nelson84
- Start date
.
During the FLQ Crisis,
rolleyes many of the Armouries in the East were stripped of the Brens, Stens, and other "obsolescent" weapons. These were torched and sent to the Smelters. I personally saw FIVE Gondola railway cars of these in the Dofasco Works in Hamilton, Ontario.
.
During the FLQ Crisis,
rolleyes many of the Armouries in the East were stripped of the Brens, Stens, and other "obsolescent" weapons. These were torched and sent to the Smelters. I personally saw FIVE Gondola railway cars of these in the Dofasco Works in Hamilton, Ontario..
.
During the FLQ Crisis,
.
I was a weapons tech at the time and I personally cut up crates full of Brens and Stens. The Enfields were sold to Canadian surplus by the millions.
As stated in previous posts, damn near every third home has or has had a Lee Enfield. There are still lots of them out there.
In 1970, I saw dozens of crated WW2 era motorcycles being sold to private dealers in Ontario. We tried to buy them but you had to be a dealer and buy them by the lot. We were 20 year old kids and didn't have the wherewithall.
I remember wooden barrels loaded with Lee Enfields like broomsticks, being sold for 12 bucks in the local WW Arcade, along with LE bayonets for some ridiculous price like 10 for a dollar. many were given to the natives and Inuit, and many were picked up by farmers and hunters. I was quite young at the time, but who knew the "endless" pile of rifles and ammo would one day run out?
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
They said the same thing about the passenger pigeon. It appears we're learning, though - people seem generally inclined to make few permanent changes to the Nagants we're seeing so many of these days. They too shall someday cease to roam the earth in their massive herds...
The old Century Arms catalogues are depressing to read, as are the SIR catalogues from the 70's.
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
There's one in my closet and it still has the imperial eagle
And its got a couple of Ross rifles and some long branches for company Along with an Inglis Bren gun (works just fine)
Last edited:
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
I think the statement that 1 in 10 homes has an Enfield may be true. I make a habit of asking hunters I know if they have an enfield. Out of the last 5 hunters I've asked 4 have enfields and the 5th guy said he just sold his. The Canadian surplus guns are out there you just have to find them. Most guys that have them don't use them anymore and in a lot of cases are more then willing to sell. I just bought an enfield from a guy at work, now he has a buddy that would like me to buy his off of him. My mom's neighbor came over the other day while I was over, we were talkin guns, he mentioned he had an " old army 303" he said it was stashed at the farm and he was going to dig it out next time he goes there. I'm anxiously awaiting him to show it to me, he said it may be a Ross. He may even want to sell it. The guns are out there if you look hard enough!
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Very true, Brother John. But there was also widespread confusion between the concepts of "many" and "infinite". "Surely the supply of pigeons / Atlantic cod / unmolested Enfields / Mosin Nagant 91/30's is so huge as to never be diminished. Let's eat / catch / take a hacksaw to as many as we can get our hands on. There'll always be more..."
I hope we're learning. I'm not doing anything to the $99 Nagant I bought from Westrifle that I can't undue.
Its not that I didn't want one when i was so young, couldn't have paid for one if i wanted to. They were also popular because it was the cheapest thing to shoot at the time, they were just about giving away the ammunition. On another note, 10 and 12 dollars sounds pretty cheap, but when average wages were less than a buck and a half an hour, it took a whole days work to pay for a LE. By today's standards, I can buy a half dozen Mosins on a good days pay.
WW Arcade: does that bring back memories in Edmonton (97 street and Jasper). Got my first Luger there from Val the sporting goods manager for $25.00 . Holster, tool and spare mag included.
The Army and Navy just down the street had bins of No.4's in the grease for $9.99, 98 Mausers for $29.95 and No.5 Jungle Carbines for a whopping $24.95. Ross bayonets were 99 cents and Patt;07 bayonets were $1.49 and the odd hooked quillion showed up in the pile.
antiqueguy
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- windsor ontario
- Location
- Tucson, Arizona
You missed my BREN. (Inglis) And I can shoot it!
blasted_saber
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- A blue part of Ontario
Google "Lee Enfield"
I saw them personally in Angola/Uganda/Rhodesia in 1969 and in Cuba in 1974. In 1976 I saw a bunch of them on the Amazon River being used by mine guard/soldiers and river pirates.
In Cuba, they were quite prevalent. The rifles in Angola were new in crates by the warehouse full.
Rhodesians and Angolans loved them, both sides.
All of the nations mentioned, used FNs and picked them up wherever and whenever they could.
Whether they actually paid for any of those rifles, I have no idea.
Maybe like all of the Canadian equipment that went to India and Turkey, supposedly sold but IMHO, lend lease.
In Cuba, they were quite prevalent. The rifles in Angola were new in crates by the warehouse full.
Rhodesians and Angolans loved them, both sides.
All of the nations mentioned, used FNs and picked them up wherever and whenever they could.
Whether they actually paid for any of those rifles, I have no idea.
Maybe like all of the Canadian equipment that went to India and Turkey, supposedly sold but IMHO, lend lease.
I saw them personally in Angola/Uganda/Rhodesia in 1969 and in Cuba in 1974. In 1976 I saw a bunch of them on the Amazon River being used by mine guard/soldiers and river pirates.
In Cuba, they were quite prevalent. The rifles in Angola were new in crates by the warehouse full.
And I have some pictures of crates piled high of Colt "potato diggers" still in the box in Russia.
Hey bearhunter do you think anyone would believe the stuff we used to see at one time. Place deleted to protect the innocent
In the early 1980s the Canadian Department of National Defence still had about 25,000 or so No.4 rifles in stock but the government (we think the orders came directly from the Cabinet) ordered the entire stock in the supply depots to be shipped one weekend to Montreal where they promptly disappeared from the DND computer. The only ones left were 5,000 or so in the hands of the cadets that couldn't be quickly recalled so about 20,000 rifles disappeared. We later found out that they were to be sent to International Firearms for onward shipment to Afghanistan where they were fighting Russians at the time. We soon began to see pictures of them in the newsmagazines. Apparently, not all of the 20,000 made it to Afghanistan because DND later bought back 7,000 of them from International Firearms to issue to the Northern Rangers. These rifles tended not to last more than a couple of years in the hands of Rangers because of the hard usage they got and there were no repair facilities for them but maybe some of these rifles are still in service in the north.
I believe all of the Canadian FN C1A1 rifles were put into long term storage as they were replaced by the new family of small arms and kept as a mobilization resource. I expect they are still there.
