45 acp enfields
- Thread starter juanvaldez
- Start date
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- Ontario defense force (ODF HQ)
Could you give a rough guesstimate to how many hours and approximately how much money it would cost to finish one of these.
thanks
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Valid question.
Answer: To make large slow holes in things at short distances. Didn't think I was going to make salads or paddle boats with it, did you?
Also, why not?
Truthfully, not a lot of practical applications for this rifle. Can't shoot deer with it. We don't have many skunks or porcupines 'round here, and as I eat what I shoot, they're mostly off the menu anyhow. It's pure entertainment, like professional sports or a car that will do 0-60 in under three seconds. Cool to have, fun to play with, the kind of thing our womenfolk shake their heads at. Hell, for that reason alone, it's worth the money.
Cap'n: I reckon I have $600+ in mine, and the donor rifle was essentially free. Lou does exquisite work, and I have zero complaints about the kit. The stock required much sweat from Lou to get exactly right. For the money I've spent, I could have had an Norinco AR, but lotsa guys have those, and this stumpy little hummer has scads of cachet and elan and a bunch of other fancy French words that impress chicks.
Dosing, I shot this little sucker on Friday. I am 100% in accordance with you. Either my eyes (most likely) or my load (230 grain hardball) or the limitations of the factory coarse sights cause me to spray slugs all over creation. I am VERY sure it's not the gun. Time to look into some semi-wadcutters, I think, and I have an old El Paso Weaver K4 laying around that would look pretty good on her I think...
One other practical adaptation is due - the mag release catch is sharp, and rests right where I put my left hand. Reckon I'll be rounding off the sharp corners on that sucker one day soon.
There are not a lot of practical applications for Lee Enfield rifles? I'm willing to wager that there is a comparable amount of meat taken with Lee Enfield rifles than with all other rifles combined.
Furthermore, while the job looks fantastic, I've always been against butchering pieces of history... there are half decent rifles out there for similar prices.
I imagine Dark Alley Dan and most of the guys posting on this thread would agree with you. On the other hand, earlier on in the thread Dan described what had been done to this particular "piece of history" back when Bubba "sporterized" it. And it sounded like it began life as one of those 'no name' British No.4s anyway. So it's not like he was chopping up a mint all-original Long Branch or Savage to build the thing.
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Indeed, Screwtape - precisely my point. This poor old girl was a wreck when I found her - some fool trimmed a half inch off the muzzle, the wood had been sanded to uselessness, the rear sight had been buggered with... in short, she was the firearms version of the 45-year-old Soiled Dove that the Christan soul of a barkeep marries to support in her later years. Rode very hard, put away terribly wet, bruised, battered, and very unhappy. She was irredeemable, and an excellent candidate for this conversion.
Jericho (can I call you Jerry?) when I said there wasn't a practical application for this rifle, I meant my rifle in particular. I'm very aware of the history of the mighty L-E, and own a number of unaltered rifles, plus a bubba of my Grandpa's and another bubba I can't bear to restore because the work that was done gave us a very trim, quick, sweet-handling rifle. Hell, I even paid quite a lot to have a beater restored by the gifted hands of St. Lou. Generally speaking, I share your disdain for Bubba and his satanic hacksaw ways. Rest assured this stubby little glob of a rifle is much happier now than she was when I bought her, and if anything has had more dignity restored than removed.
You can sleep tonight knowing she's been respected...
as with the ones that I have were bubbas and loose parts no functioning /restoreable LEs were harmed so rest easy ,but these are a lot of fun ,same problem with the peep sights ,once scoped they are suprisingly accurate Cheers
Good to know I am not the only one.
I can just imagine a thread on the 2085 version of CGN: "Hey guys, look at the neat modification I did to this old M16 to let me use caseless electrostatic 2mm pistol beads in it."
"Geez, I wish you hadn't done that. That rifle was used in every major and minor war in the last half of the 20th century and the first quarter of ours. It's a classic military weapon and getting very hard to find in mint condition now. I really don't approve of people butchering pieces of history like that."
"Oh, don't worry. It's not like it was a mint M16 or anything. Some Bubba many years ago had got hold of it and done all sorts of terrible things to it: replaced the original 20" barrel with some grotesque 10.5" job instead; replaced the original iron sights with some trashy glow-in-the-dark things; removed the perfectly adequate GI handguard and replaced it with an ugly piece of junk that has these ridiculous-looking notched rails all over the top, bottom and sides making a comfortable grip impossible; widened the magazine well so it could use something called 'PMAGs'; replaced the basic GI buttstock with a weird folding thing that doesn't even work anymore. All these parts seem to have the word "Tactical" on them somewhere; any idea what that means? And they've all got makers' names on them I've never heard of -- NEA, Noveske and so forth. What were those anyway - specialists in making chintzy stuff for would-be Bubba gunsmiths to ruin perfectly good GI M16s with?"
"Geez, I wish you hadn't done that. That rifle was used in every major and minor war in the last half of the 20th century and the first quarter of ours. It's a classic military weapon and getting very hard to find in mint condition now. I really don't approve of people butchering pieces of history like that."
"Oh, don't worry. It's not like it was a mint M16 or anything. Some Bubba many years ago had got hold of it and done all sorts of terrible things to it: replaced the original 20" barrel with some grotesque 10.5" job instead; replaced the original iron sights with some trashy glow-in-the-dark things; removed the perfectly adequate GI handguard and replaced it with an ugly piece of junk that has these ridiculous-looking notched rails all over the top, bottom and sides making a comfortable grip impossible; widened the magazine well so it could use something called 'PMAGs'; replaced the basic GI buttstock with a weird folding thing that doesn't even work anymore. All these parts seem to have the word "Tactical" on them somewhere; any idea what that means? And they've all got makers' names on them I've never heard of -- NEA, Noveske and so forth. What were those anyway - specialists in making chintzy stuff for would-be Bubba gunsmiths to ruin perfectly good GI M16s with?"
I disagree. There is no reason one could not hunt with one of these beasts. I'm waiting for mine to be completed and I see no reason you couldn't hotrod one or these rifles to be a short range deer gun. I'm currently prepping 200 Starline .45 Super cases for the arrival of my little .45 carbine. The Super brass is proofed to handle significantly more pressure than a standard ACP. We know that the .303 version of this rifle can take more pressure than the Super makes. I think this platform is a lot more versatile than many would give it credit for. BTW, my donor was a butchered sporter as well.
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
I can just imagine a thread on the 2085 version of CGN: "Hey guys, look at the neat modification I did to this old M16 to let me use caseless electrostatic 2mm pistol beads in it."
"Geez, I wish you hadn't done that. That rifle was used in every major and minor war in the last half of the 20th century and the first quarter of ours. It's a classic military weapon and getting very hard to find in mint condition now. I really don't approve of people butchering pieces of history like that."
"Oh, don't worry. It's not like it was a mint M16 or anything. Some Bubba many years ago had got hold of it and done all sorts of terrible things to it: replaced the original 20" barrel with some grotesque 10.5" job instead; replaced the original iron sights with some trashy glow-in-the-dark things; removed the perfectly adequate GI handguard and replaced it with an ugly piece of junk that has these ridiculous-looking notched rails all over the top, bottom and sides making a comfortable grip impossible; widened the magazine well so it could use something called 'PMAGs'; replaced the basic GI buttstock with a weird folding thing that doesn't even work anymore. All these parts seem to have the word "Tactical" on them somewhere; any idea what that means? And they've all got makers' names on them I've never heard of -- NEA, Noveske and so forth. What were those anyway - specialists in making chintzy stuff for would-be Bubba gunsmiths to ruin perfectly good GI M16s with?"
That's comedy gold right there!
Indeed, Screwtape - precisely my point. This poor old girl was a wreck when I found her - some fool trimmed a half inch off the muzzle, the wood had been sanded to uselessness, the rear sight had been buggered with... in short, she was the firearms version of the 45-year-old Soiled Dove that the Christan soul of a barkeep marries to support in her later years. Rode very hard, put away terribly wet, bruised, battered, and very unhappy. She was irredeemable, and an excellent candidate for this conversion.
Jericho (can I call you Jerry?) when I said there wasn't a practical application for this rifle, I meant my rifle in particular. I'm very aware of the history of the mighty L-E, and own a number of unaltered rifles, plus a bubba of my Grandpa's and another bubba I can't bear to restore because the work that was done gave us a very trim, quick, sweet-handling rifle. Hell, I even paid quite a lot to have a beater restored by the gifted hands of St. Lou. Generally speaking, I share your disdain for Bubba and his satanic hacksaw ways. Rest assured this stubby little glob of a rifle is much happier now than she was when I bought her, and if anything has had more dignity restored than removed.
You can sleep tonight knowing she's been respected...
That's good to hear. I like restoring them to their original glory... but if some of the barrel had been chopped already... then... oh well... alright.
My answer to why would be, because I can....
My answer to "chopping up pieces of history" is this, I would wager good money that nobody has copped up a military configured lee enfield in a good many years. There are many million variants of these guns. If somebody makes a piece of trash into treasure, I say more power to them. Many horrible things have been done to these guns if they come out as a pretty gun it's grand no matter how useless it is to the next guy.
I had the pleasure of shooting one of these guns. It was a number 5 (jungle carbine) that bubba had attacked hard. My buddy built it with a kit he got from some place. Neat little gun. Shot it at some beer cans, it hit them. What more can you ask? I sure wouldn't want to get hit with a .45 acp out of a 12" barrel... If you get my drift.
My answer to "chopping up pieces of history" is this, I would wager good money that nobody has copped up a military configured lee enfield in a good many years. There are many million variants of these guns. If somebody makes a piece of trash into treasure, I say more power to them. Many horrible things have been done to these guns if they come out as a pretty gun it's grand no matter how useless it is to the next guy.
I had the pleasure of shooting one of these guns. It was a number 5 (jungle carbine) that bubba had attacked hard. My buddy built it with a kit he got from some place. Neat little gun. Shot it at some beer cans, it hit them. What more can you ask? I sure wouldn't want to get hit with a .45 acp out of a 12" barrel... If you get my drift.
I agree about the sporterized Lees. The fact is, after all the major wars last century, millions of surplus bolt actions were sold to the public at bargain prices. And in 1920-1939 or 1945-1970, nobody worried too much about mucking around with Lee Enfields (of any variant), P-14s, P-17s, Springfield 03A3s or Mausers of all variants, because there were 'plenty more where that came from'. In fact, the P-17s and Mauser 98s were considered absolute ideal actions to build any number of custom rifles on, because of the strength of the design and the quality of the military actions.
I had a 'sporterized' Lee once that had a manufacturer's date of 1899 on it, along with Vicky's cipher -- it had originally been a Boer War era LONG Lee Enfield. When I bought it from a gunshop in about 1985 (for about $60), I was told the consignor was selling it because he was getting too old to hunt, but he had used it successfully elk hunting for the last 13 years! I wonder if any ARs will still be shootable 80 years from now?
Anyway, with the speed of the L-E action, and a short barrel, I imagine a .45ACP 'brush gun' like these would be an absolutely ideal 'home defence' carbine. And so politically correct too - all wood and metal, historic action, bolt rather than semi-auto, and a 'low-power' pistol cartridge.
I don't have the cut Long Lee anymore, but I do have some other chopped-up ones around...
It's just my humble opinion
, but you'll be doing yourself a real favour if you use a 3-9x scope on the .45 ACP conversion. The barrel is accurate enough to let you put bullets through previous bullet-holes 
, if you have even a remotely stable "rest" for the rifle.P.S. Like almost every other person in this thread
, I chose a No. 4 "donor rifle" that had already been pretty heavily sporterized by some unknown & previous owner....
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Thanks, mate - I'll ponder this some. I want a trim scope so as to not give the whole thing a "fat man with tiny feet" look.
Anyone suggest a trim scope of higher magnification, ideally not horrifically expensive?
Anyone suggest a trim scope of higher magnification, ideally not horrifically expensive?
The "compact" 2-7x or 3-9x might look neat ?.....
Though a "standard" Bushnell 3x9 shouldn't be too bad....
Dark Alley Dan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Darkest Edmonton
Thanks, mate - That's a lot less objectionable than I had thought it would be.
Said it before and I'll say it again - Gee, I like the look of that little rifle of yours. The gloss stock/barrel in the white combo is very sharp indeed.
Said it before and I'll say it again - Gee, I like the look of that little rifle of yours. The gloss stock/barrel in the white combo is very sharp indeed.
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