Buying Lee Enfields – and ammunition – from Simpson-Sears, in the good old days...

I bought my first centre fire rifle from Sears in Winnipeg about 1964 for $8.88. Paid the money, carried it out, and it rode home balanced on the handlebars of my bicycle.
 
BTW, see the conical flash hider on the Commando? It was pot metal junk, held on with a slotted set screw that pushed on the bayonet lug. As Wheaty said, a few shots fired and...bango, downrange it went. (never shot mine)
I had one of these rifles...I put the pot metal flash hider up on ebay and got $55 USD for it! :cool: :dancingbanana:

As I recall, the barrel was roughly cut off...no attempt at crowning. Just put it in the chop saw and graunch.... I had to get it crowned by my gunsmith.

It was a nice rifle other than that.

In the first post, note how they almost apologize for the full wood Enfield No1MkIII? And they're a lot cheaper than the Bubbaed ones? :rolleyes:

LeeEnfield_zpsyt9home3.jpg
 
In 1975 McLeods in Regina had No4Mk1* rifles for $24.99

That's where mine came from. Full wood, Long Branch 1943, s/n 36L56XX, unissued, 99% finish on it still.
 
Early '60s [before the Turdo welfare revolution] mom worked at a Sears order office and along about
mid August the ladies would drag out their barebones cheapy wooden gun rack [no back, no doors, no
chain, no locks...] from the back and put about a dozen or so rifles on it, mostly 1894s and Lee Enfields.
Occasionally someone came in and bought one. Naturally I went over each one closely and bought a
number of Lee Enfields from there or the bicycle shop down the street. No one ever thought about "the danger"
and this was before the Lieberals had turned all the d bags out of prison. End of September the guns and
rack went into the back of the shop for another year.
 
I bought a sporter Mk III in 1964, stock cut down and refinished (metal & wood) for 1995. New single shot shotguns were the same price. Later on, they had a table with full wood Enfields, probably fair to good condition, stacked like cordwood, for $10 each.
 
Actually it is 28.4 times since 1950.

Average wage in Canada in 1950 = $ 1863.00
Average wage in Canada in 2015 = $52940.00

That would translate into the following Selling prices in today's CADollar Value:

a) Original full wood Enfield $ 340.52
b) Sporter Enfield $ 450.99
c) Commando Enfield $ 623.38

Here is the multiple choice question:
In your opinion which one would be the better deal today?
 
Last edited:
Sussex was a name for a grade of sportered LE done by Parker Hale IIRC.
The "Commando" looks like one of the conversions done by Santa Fe/ Golden State Arms c1960.
 
Yeah,and I would eagerly await the new Sears and Eatons fall catalogues to check out the rifle and shotguns...my dad bought me my first rifle-a Lee Enfield 303 for $8, in 1962 and that got me into hunting (I was never allowed to have 'toy' guns as a kid , guns weren't 'toys' but dad said when I got old enough he would buy me a real rifle,and he did) )
Herters had the 'biggest and best' of everything and I pored over that catalogue too
 
Last edited:
I have some hunting ammo in .303. It's "Mastercraft" and I believe it was made by Dominion for Canadian Tire stores. I think it's $3.45/10 rnd. box. I also have some Kynoch ammo that's british milsurp stuff factory reloaded with 180 gr. soft point ammo. All of it is Berdan primed so not reloadable, but it's a cool bit of Canadian shooting history.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom