1943 long branch No4 MkI*

Tinman204

Tinman204

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Picked up this beauty today. I found a local ad for a longbranch and decided to go and have a look at it. The fellow that had it was in his 70's and said he'd never fired it, but his son shot it once 20 or so years ago. He said he's had it in the basement for over 30 years or longer and that his father in law gave it to him and that he figures he may have had it for a super long time to.

The biggest joke is that the fellow said that he was going to turn it in at the Winnipeg police cameras for guns event that happened a couple of months ago. This was an event where they would give a digital camera in exchange for a working gun which they would then scrap. He said the only reason it's still in one piece was his son in law said that someone would buy it and not to scrap it. Thank god he decided to sell and not scrap the old girl.

The wood is in great unrestored shape, but the buttstock is darker then the fore end. Both are correct and marked with the C broad arrow though. The bolt is mis matched but who knows when that was done, doesn't bother me. The barrel is like brand new and looks unfired, the rest of the gun appears un molested and complete and matching in every way.

Here's some pics, thanks for looking!!

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Really think I scored today. It's cool to find a none FTR, untouched, unfired longbranch locally and I think I got it for a decent price. I didn't want to work the guy over as he knew nothing about the gun and was marveling over the info I was giving him on it. It's good karma I figure to give a good price for a good gun.
 
tiriaq said:
It was used with a two point sling for target shooting.
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Gonna have to look up a picture of this in use..

Drat - I can't find anything. Anyone know of more information on this? A picture of the sling in use with this swivel? Did commonwealth snipers use this feature? I am intrigued - To me, use of a shooting sling by the military was largely an American thing, right up through the end of WWII (that is to say, it was taught, but not used so much, as the loop sling was highly impractical for all but competitions). As far as I could tell, the use of a sling to aid shooting was not taught to commonwealth soldiers at all.

@the OP - nice find.
 
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When I noticed the center sling swivel I also figured it may have been a target gun at one point or another. The previous owner could tell me nothing, his father in law gave it to him and 30-40 years later here it sits un once fired in 4 decades, pretty cool if you ask me. Not bad for my first un bubba'd Enfield. I'll try and post a range report tomorrow cause I know I'm going to have to shoot it.
 
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Good Snag! Surprising if it is a 5 groove barrel in 43 non-FTR'd. Re: 2point slings, we used them with the mk7's in cadets in high school 54-58. Sad to think how many of them have been/are to be destroyed.
 
bushwhacker said:
Good Snag! Surprising if it is a 5 groove barrel in 43 non-FTR'd. Re: 2point slings, we used them with the mk7's in cadets in high school 54-58. Sad to think how many of them have been/are to be destroyed.
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I'd like to see a picture of the proper sling attached just to get an idea of what it looks like.

I just finished shooting it. Put 35 150gr factory rounds through it that my brother brought over. We shot 2-3" groups at 50 just to verify function. It worked good, need that ejector screw. I put another one I had in but it's slightly too short. Interestin that the guns point of aim and point of impact are pretty dead on even thought the sight is at 200 at the bottom.
 
I've got a few more questions for some of you who are in the know. My reciever serial number is 63L###X
and my bolt number is 54L###X. Is the bolt serial number a longbranch serial number or is it just from a random gun?
The other thing is on the fore stock under the barrel there's 4 long slots routered into the stock, is this factory or is it possibly a bedding job for target application? I didn't take any pics unfortunately.
 
From what I know (and the gurus will also chime in here) the slots are factory, and the bolt is indeed Long Branch. Too bad the serial numbers don't match. That dropped the value to what you paid for it, from what I've seen. The bolts were mated at the factory where one of the final steps was to fire it with an over-proof round to stress the parts "into battery", if I recall correctly. Not to say it won't work fine, as hundreds of owners will tell you.
 
The ejector screw was missing? That is another clue that a target sight may have been fitted at one time. That hole is one of the mounting points.
Forends have lightening grooves. Any indications of hand bedding? .
 
tiriaq said:
The ejector screw was missing? That is another clue that a target sight may have been fitted at one time. That hole is one of the mounting points.
Forends have lightening grooves. Any indications of hand bedding? .
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if it was bedded. Although the wood where the receiver sits is perfectly clean and flat like it may have had a little work done at some point. This is only my second lee Enfield, but from what I can tell and my experience (although limited) the gun is in top shape, all the wood fits perfectly.

Now that I've looked at some period sights, I'd say this gun was set up for target shooting for sure. It's too bad the owner couldn't recall if his father in law was a target shooter or not. If it was converted to target status it would have been done in the 1970's or earlier. Either way I'm happy to own it, and although I didnt get it cheap, I think I got a fair price on it. It's got c-broad arrow on most parts including the barrel bands, sling swivel and butt plate trap door. Too bad it's mis matched cause it's so correct. It's a great shooter and I bought it just for that purpose.

I find it strange that a mis matched 43 longbranch has a 43 or 44 bolt on it, you'd think it's more likely that a random bolt would be installed instead of one from The longbranch arsenal. I could see today a collector putting a long branch bolt in but 40-50 years ago these guns weren't exactly rare or valueable enough to worry about such things? I tend to believe the seller as to his story about the gun sitting all of these years and honestly he was very excited for me to tell him about this old gun sitting in the basement for all of those years.
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One more thing the wood is diffenent colors, but are stamped with C- broad arrow. So I'm guessing the wood was changed at one point or another?
 
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