BSA Lee "Speed" rifle in .303

LawrenceN

LawrenceN

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Okay, I'm a little out of my depth on this one. I just picked up a the rifle mentioned above. Though pics will follow, here's what I BELIEVE I've got. The forestock is slimmed down and factory checkered. All the sights have been removed and a scope mount put on. I has a leather lace-on cheek piece riser. There is no mag cut-off. The butt plate is a checkered black plastic one with the BSA crossed rifles and logo. The grip is also checkered. There is a cut-out in the stock on the right side that I think once had an adjustable peep sight when the barrel had sights on it (see pic). It has the european style post and hole sling mounts fore and aft. It has the commonly seen Lee Enfield style safety on the left side, not the old style Lee Metford bolt mounted safety. It does not have any military possession stamps but it has the Birmingham proof marks and a stamp on the barrel that reads "for cordite only". The serial numbers are matching. The bore very good with lots of rifling, it just wants a good cleaning. I think it is a pure sporting rifle made by BSA, not a military refurb so I'm not asking this question in the Milsurp catagory. While I'm waiting to get pics up, do any of you gentlemen know what I've picked up and what the value would be?
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I don't know if there is much collector interest in Lee Speed rifles but I suspect that the scope mounts and scope are a much later addition to the original rifle.
 
Same thought here. If it's a Lee-Speed, it should have the iron sights.
Good pics would help. And, yes, quite a few fellows are interested in collecting Lee-Speed in Canada.
 
Pics are up! As I said, any good input would be most appreciated. Baribal, as I'd mentioned, it USED TO HAVE IRON SIGHTS and the mag cut-off. They were obviously removed when the scope mount was installed, but the screws were put back into the holes, so at least they're not lost. I'll try to source the sights to put that back to rights, but there's not much to be done about the place where the peep sight was installed. I may fill in the screw holes with grub screws and tidy up that mess a little bit.
 
I think you have the remains of a Lee-Speed, model No. 3, less the sights and the 5 shots magazine.

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Note that the OP's rifle had a charger bridge, that was hacked off the receiver.
There were sporters with charger bridges.
 
That's definitely a "commercial" action, as per the stamping shows. Some late BSA Lee-Speed (or "spinn-off" post-Lee-Speed, if you better like) were made on standard actions, without much work, but never using ex-military actions, early ones sometimes showing the dust cover and mag. cut-offs. There was a lot of production variation depending on urging or lazy days, I don't know. But the stock the OP pictured is really reminescent of the Lee-Speed era.
The ex-military "sporters" made by BSA were produced post WWI.
 
Thanks all, for the information. As to the old catalogue pages, my rifle doesn't conform to anything there. The barrel is 20-3/4" and the forward sling stud is mounted in the forend and runs through the stock into the barrel band that you see in the pictures. There never was a sling stud monted on the barrel itself. Perhaps a carbine variant of the Pattern 1 rifle? I think the magazine is a for a No.4 Stevens. It has the boxed "S" stamp on it, but it works just fine. Back to the question I'd asked in the first post, any idea of value?
 
You have a post WW1 commerical BSA sporting Rifle 1920-30 range. Serial number will be on the right top butt socket just under the bolt handle. SN should also be on the underside of the barrel. Not a Lee Spped however a BSA sporting rifle that appears in their post war catalogs. It's been modified ....charger bridge removed, no mag cut off, its has a lyman peep sight on it at sometime as right side stock is cut down, barrel sights removed and similar to Lee Speed style and very pricey. Williams scope mount added...a 1950's modification. Could be restored however costly. Just put a scope on it and enjoy shooting it.
 
Actually, the Milsurp section has a couple of collectors of these rifles - you might want to post a cross reference, or get a mod to move this. Or they might feel the disturbance in the Force and find it here on their own - which appears to be what happened above.
 
Agreed, BSA "Lee Enfield pattern" Commercial sporting rifle. The cordite reference would have me thinking early 20's manufacture. Unfortunately it has been heavily worked over and thus doesn't retain much value. Honestly I would say $150 tops. to the right person. Just breathe Lee Speed and a lot of us will suddenly appear.
 
Ok. Where do I start?

I cannot tell from the photos but some bubba installed a Williams scope mount on this #4 rifle, or perhaps a #4c Carbine. This was one of the last true commercial sporters offered by B.S.A.Co. & showed up in their post-war (post Great War) catalogues, circa 1922-1930-1935. I cannot tell from the photos whether the barrel has been shortened or not. If it has not been shortened, it will measure 20 1/2" and there will be a slot at 12 o'clock in order to fit the fore-sight base alignment slot. If the top of the barrel is smooth without a slot, the barrel has been shortened from the 25" length of the #4 or #4b rifles. The giveaway for the #4 style is the round knob pistol grip, unlike the capped grips of the #1, #1A, #2 & #3 Pattern High Velocity Sporting Rifles, in addition to the gutta-perchas monogrammed butt-plate, versus the steel, (engraved on the #1, #1A, #2 rifles), trap-door butt-plates, used on the 1-3 Pattern rifles.

The charger bridge was likely removed when the Williams base was installed. The holes & stock cut on the fore-end were from a Lyman peep-sight, which was offered as a factory option on these later rifles when P-H & A.J.Parker sights were scarce.

Unfortunately, there are very few parts left on this rifle of interest to collectors, as the magazine is not original, the cape sights are absent, the fore-end has been cut, etc., etc., etc.

Hope this helps.

Jim
 
My father had a BSA Lee-Enfield sporter when I was a kid. If it was a post WWI conversion, it was a good one.

There is only one grainy photo of my dad posing with it somewhere, but I remember that it was a BSA, it had deep red almost rosewood looking furniture, was nicely checkered and had had very nice leaf rear sight and sporting front sight too.

If I remember right it did have a magazine cut off thing though. Maybe it was a conversion.

He loaned it to an alcoholic buddy when he got a 2nd hand .22 Hornet to hunt deer with and we never saw it again.
 
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