my sporterized lee enfield collection and odd markings....

R

raym

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Well today I picked up a Lee Endfield No4 Mk1 sporter. It was sitting at a shop in Victoria for a whopping $80, I figured what the hell it'll make another good shooter.

Top: 1940 Lithgow No1 Mk3* SMLE (numbers matching)
Middle: 1918 Enfield No1 Mk3* ShtLE
Bottom: unknown date and make Mk4 No1 (numbers match on bolt and recever but has a new globco barrel) Globco really butcherd this rifle. All ID marks on wrist and carrier were milled down to nighting.

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Heres the marking on the inside of my 1940 Lithgow No1 Mk3* just above the trigger, havent found what they mean, but they are numberd 1 to 10......


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Thanks
 
Cool. A good start. Welcome to the gang.
Nothing wrong with Sporters, at least 50% of mine are sporters.
A lot of folks will look down their noses, but don't pay them too much attention.
IMO, most full wood, collector grade Milsurps are for 'Show'...Sporters are for 'Go'
Have fun and be careful.
 
tokguy said:
Cool. A good start. Welcome to the gang.
Nothing wrong with Sporters, at least 50% of mine are sporters.
A lot of folks will look down their noses, but don't pay them too much attention.
IMO, most full wood, collector grade Milsurps are for 'Show'...Sporters are for 'Go'
Have fun and be careful.
Click to expand...

thats the way i see it. A rifle was made to be used, so unless they are unsafe to shoot, use the damn thing! going to scope the No4 mk1 and the lithgow Mk1 no3* and they will be added to my hunting line up.
 
Don't get in too big of a hurry to 'D & T' though.
With a nod to the purists in this forum, perhaps one of them may be restore-able, in which case sell it or trade it for an un-restore-able one. Then D & T the 'beyond return' one
 
tokguy said:
Don't get in too big of a hurry to 'D & T' though.
With a nod to the purists in this forum, perhaps one of them may be restore-able, in which case sell it or trade it for an un-restore-able one. Then D & T the 'beyond return' one
Click to expand...

S&K insta mounts. Rock solid and no drilling into the old tree oh tree.
 
My military configuration No 1 MK III gets used for hunting frequently this last hunting season and will get used for Spring bear hunting season. Some guys won't use their military Lee Enfield but I purchased mine for the purpose of wanting to hunt with an old military bolt action battle rifle. I have a Mosin Nagant for the same purpose.

I had a Sporter before my military configuration rifles. They're good for what they are. A .303 British hunting / sporting rifle.

I have a military configuration matching numbers No 4 MK I with bayonet and its kind of cool but I feel that I may sell it.
 
smellie said:
That GLOBCO is a collectible in its own right.

Nice selection for starting out.

Welcome to the club!
Click to expand...

How so? I know nothing about globco.
I bought it because it was cheap and will make a good shooter, maybe another hunting rifle. Gonna sand it down and redo the stock.

Might restore the 1918 no1mk3 if I can find cheap wood
 
GLOBCO was Globe Firearms in Ottawa.

They were a surplus dealer/distributor/remanufacturer/refurbisher of sorts, back in the days when "everybody knew" that the supply of ex-military rifles was infinite and would go on forever. "Everybody", of course, was wrong. They went through tons and tons of various .303s, selling some pretty much the way they were when they got them on pallets, building hundreds more from bins of spare parts, others as chopped-down minimal sporters, others as complete reworks..... of which yours is one. When it left their plant, it looked absolutely brand-new and sold for a fairly healthy buck, even though nowhere as high as a brand-new commercial rifle.

One thing for which Globe was famous was what we now call Bubba-ing of military rifles. A single example here will suffice. They got their hands on a batch of SVT-40s at a time when there was NO ammunition available at all, this side of the Iron Curtain. They offered these at $39.95 and a few sold, but they still had most of them. So they came up with the bright idea of building them into .303 semi-auto sporters and making them look very zippy. Problem was that they had not done their homework properly..... and there were no special tools for adjusting the gas system...... and 99% of people had no idea about adjusting a gas system, anyway: they just wanted something to go bang. And so almost the ENTIRE WORLD SUPPLY OF FINN-CAPTURED SVT RIFLES WAS DESTROYED, making them very rare collection pieces today. The result, the Globco 555 "Mohawk", ended up beating themselves to death because of a design flaw and also are rare today.

When they constructed their new building in Ottawa, they used MARTINIS for rebar. After all, they had so many of the things..... and nobody would want a lousy old Zulu War Martini..... would they?

But they did turn out some nice .303 sporters.... and yours is one.

Very few are left today. Take care of the one you have..... and DO NOT sand it down and refinish it. There are guys on here who will help you through a mild refurbishing, if that is what you want.

If I owned it, I would not be dicking with it. There just are not enough left for that.

Hope this helps.
 
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I was thinking about stripping it down and cleaning up the stock. It shoots nice but it has problems loading and the back of the fireing pin needs work. There is a piece missing so it can swivel to much and the back sight is missing a piece so you can adjust for distance.

At some point someone painted it the color it is now, they did a pretty ####ty job.
 
I've handled a Mohawk carbine - that is one very cool gun (if it works)

+1 on the S&K mount - rock solid and no drilling. I saw an early Longbranch once, it was made for New Zealand, it would have been perfect if someone had gone with an insta-mount, sadly, they drilled it.
 
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