Ceremonial Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1

Tikkaboy

Tikkaboy

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Was at the local gun store today and saw a nice ceremonial long branch Enfield. All matching wood, chrome action,butt plate.Rifling no too bad.They were asking $395. Is that a good price?
 
No its an awful deal. Do not buy it. Youd better give me the shop name and phone number though so I can call them and complain about their high prices....;)

Thats actually a really good deal, provided its not some bubba'd longbranch that someone chromed and then clmained it was a "ceremonial" rifle.
 
Tikkaboy said:
What should I look for to tell the difference?
Click to expand...

To be perfectly honest, I have never heard of chromed ceremonial Lee Enfields before. Maybe they do exist and are very rare. 375$ would be a very good price for a regular, good condition No.4 Longbranch, so I have trouble believing it is some kind of rare variant for that price.
 
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A chromed rifle is definitely not a typical Canadian military type of item. Perhaps the rifle was used by another organization for ceremonies, I don't know. I do know that I've never seen or heard of a chromed rifle being used before. Unless there is provenance with the rifle I would think that the chrome finish would hurt the value of the rifle quite a bit.
 
All I ever heard off was chromed bayonets, but that was in British service. From what I know, ceremonial Enfields only had the wood polished, and were issued with a white sling. I think the purpose was that if needed, even ceremonial rifles could be issued for combat so no major modifications could be done, I would not want to carry a very shiny chrome plated rifle into combat.
 
Reminds me of the "loaner" double barreled, all white, "long tom" that was displayed in the window of Delisle Thompson Sporting Goods in Saskatoon many years ago with a caption "For Formal Weddings Only".
 
I bought one that a guy won during an EME bonspeil. The unit that donated the rifle mentioned that it cost more to chrome than the raffle made. I also have a chromed Savage no4mk1. Very pretty looking gun, and got it for a steal as well.

There were chromed spike bayonets and scabbards too in Cdn service. As mentioned, there were also white bayonet frogs for them, and of course white slings. But chrome rifles were more likely an out of service thing. I have seen chromed guns on display in officers and Sr NCOs messes, and also on trophies. But these were not done to in-service weapons. I had seem it done to weapons assembled from parts, but not done to rifles issued to units. There was a time not too many years ago when you could order in no4 barrelled receivers in as new condition as a non-accountable item.
 
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Sorry I was at the gun store, did not have my camera. It may have been a job someone did themselves and if so it was well done.The wood was all the same colour/matching. I may have to buy it. Even the mag was chrome plated.
 
After some thought and imagining a chrome No.4. I would not really want a chrome rifle. It seems tacky to me. I would rather have a nice, deep, high polish blue. And for a stock, a nice curly maple, medium colored stock. For a mount, take a chunk of curly maple, stain it darker, use some nice brass hooks and maybe a plaque. That would be a fine decoration and to me is more befitting a firearm.

But if you like chrome thats fine too. It might make a nice conversion piece. If you think the price is OK, and you like the rifle why not? Your eyes may see value different then the rest of us on here.
 
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