20 rd Lee Enfield magazine

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Skaal-tel

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So, I was talking to a friend of mine who, in the course of our discussion about firearms, mentioned that his grandfather had a 20 round lee enfield magazine. I had no idea that there was ever such a thing, but a little google searching proved him right. I suggested it might be a bren gun mag.. but he said no.. he'd actually seen it in the rifle.

I don't have pictures yet.. but I've heard that such a thing, if genuine, is about as rare as a magazine gets.

This being Canada I have to ask... with only a regular FAC - is such a thing legal to own? We suspect it might not be.

Does anyone here have pictures of a genuine factory produced 20rd lee enfield mag? I have nothing to compare to and had no luck on the internet.
 
I believe the Lee Enfield is specifically mentioned in the FA act as limited to 10 rds but center fire bolt guns are not limited. I suspect there for it is limited to 10 as it is called out in the act.
 
green said:
There were 20 round LE mags made during WWI. Most were destroyed and are rare today.
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Yes. It exists.
the-smle-short-magazine-lee-enfield-303-infantry-rifle-35-1024.jpg


I found a photo

The question is - is it legal to own ?
 
CODFan said:
For comparison, we can own 30rnd AR mags that are limited to a 5rnd capacity.

Lee Enfield mags must be limited to 10rnds.
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The Enfield magazine is specifically limited to 10 rounds, because there were some semi-auto or full-auto guns that used the same magazine, but are super rare. So the avoid having to pin all those Enfield magazines, they put a specific exemption into the law.

So OP, your friends 20 round magazine is a prohibited device unless it is pinned to 10.
 
It would be debatable if the Enfield mags are limited to 10. The portion dealing with them is an exemption, not a limit. Using the decisions and evolution of the magazine capacity rulings over the years, there was likely never a mag made for the Charleton or any of the other variations of automatic Enfields. The only exception to this would be the modified Bren magazines used on some Charltons.

Since the Enfield magazines were made specifically for a bolt action rifle, there is no capacity on them. Whoever wrote these rules tried to de-regulate something that was not regulated.
 
So then, what is this site's opinion regarding the 20 or 25 round mauser "trench mags" ? Claiming that the Lee Enfield 20 round need to be pinned to 10, what about the WW1 mauser 8x57 replicas??
 
Potashminer said:
So then, what is this site's opinion regarding the 20 or 25 round mauser "trench mags" ? Claiming that the Lee Enfield 20 round need to be pinned to 10, what about the WW1 mauser 8x57 replicas??
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Are they for a bolt action? Then capacity doesn't matter.

The enfield is an exception to this, in that it cannot be over 10 rounds.(but again, is somehow related to some practically non-existent super-rare gun that was a full-auto that used the enfield mags, not really anything to do with the enfield rifle itself)
 
The NZ Charlton conversion may have been initially developed/prototyped using converted Bren magazines, but purpose built magazines were produced (which were not conversions). Surviving magazines are not converted Bren mags, although they are based on the Bren design.
Standard Lee Enfield magazines may have been usable in some conversions, but were designed and manufactured for use on a manually operated rifle, not designed and manufactured for use in an automatic firearm. Like the AIA magazines usable in many M-14 type rifles.
 
well my opinion for what its worth.....

the 20 round trench magazines were specifically designed for the ShLE Enfield (No1MkIII)

the magazines also predate the semi auto conversions, and the semi-auto conversions are not 'commonly available'

a 20 rd mag should be fine.

same as some of the 25 round .22 ruger mags are legal, but any current mags sold as a dual purpose rifle/pistol mag are limited to 10 rounds.

its not what the mag will fit in but what it was designed for.

it was argued that the 10 round enfield mags produced after the semi-auto conversions would be essentially a dual purpose mag. However the semi-auto enfields fail to pass the 'commonly available' criteria.
 
Let me play Devil's advocate ....

The concept of commonly available applies to Handguns, not to rifles.

Therefore the limitation on any semi-auto is 5 rounds unless listed as an exemption.

Handguns, Rimfire Rifles, the Lee Enfield and M1 Garand are examples listed as specific exemptions to the 5 round limit.

The full and semi-auto Lee Enfield were based on/converted from the ShLE Enfield (No1MkIII) and were available in the late 30's/early40s.


This is an interesting topic.
 
Note that the following magazines are exempt form the cartridge limits:

(b) is not a reproduction and was originally designed or manufactured for use in a firearm that

(i) is commonly known as the Charlton Rifle,

(ii) is commonly known as the Farquhar-Hill Rifle, or

(iii) is commonly known as the Huot Automatic Rifle;
 
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