CF Holdings of Lee Enfields in the mid 1970s

[purple]

I was recently going through some old papers and re-discovered a summary sheet of CF holdings of various Lee Enfield rifles which was prepared in the mid 1970s for one of the mobilization planning exercises which were conducted back then. These include the following:

No4 rifles- 38,482
No4 Sniper rifles- 37
No4 DP rifles- 3,267
No4 DCRA rifles- 939
No4 Bisley rifles-87
C No7 rifles- 24,610
No 8 rifles- 9

Who knows what small residual stocks of these still exist. No doubt the majority of these were smelted down or otherwise disposed of over the past 30 plus years. As an aside I remember one of the troops who had never done weapons drill with the FN as of 1968, asking if there were still No 4s available for the quarter guard that he had been detailed for.

 

[DILLIGAF]

Some rangers still use lee's

 

[sunray]

"...stocks of these still exist..." Most of 'em were chopped by the Socialist F**ks, along with most C1A1's, C2's and No. 7's. Mid 90's or earlier, as I recall.
Mind you, they were being chopped in the early 80's too. Reg Force Armoured guy told me he saw 'em being run over with a Leopard, back then. Gunparts bought a lot of C1A1 and C2 parts though.
Army Cadet Corps lost real firearms, locally, years ago. Air rifles only at Corps level, these days. Some hold a few DP No. 4 Rifles for Colour Parties.
Air and Sea Cadets lost recreational shooting in the early 80's. The Air and Sea guys I knew got invited to join me and my Corps on occasion though.

 

[brit84]

"...stocks of these still exist..." Most of 'em were chopped by the Socialist F**ks, along with most C1A1's, C2's and No. 7's. Mid 90's or earlier, as I recall.
Mind you, they were being chopped in the early 80's too. Reg Force Armoured guy told me he saw 'em being run over with a Leopard, back then. Gunparts bought a lot of C1A1 and C2 parts though.
Army Cadet Corps lost real firearms, locally, years ago. Air rifles only at Corps level, these days. Some hold a few DP No. 4 Rifles for Colour Parties.
Air and Sea Cadets lost recreational shooting in the early 80's. The Air and Sea guys I knew got invited to join me and my Corps on occasion though.

the Army Cadets where I volunteer have daisy air rifles and anschutz .22 for biathalon, we also have a number of .22 enfields that will soon be sent in to be ruined into parade rifles. This is at the local level, we also had the same at my air squadron when i was in cadets

 

[piecebroker]

Would love to see an updated list of everything the CF has in storage when it comes to old firearms. I'm sure they still have significant stocks tucked away that have long been forgotten about.

I'm surprised more museums didn't try and get ahold of the old stock the CF destroyed a couple of years ago. I wonder what the process is for them even being notified? And what the requirements/process is to transfer old unneeded stock from CF ownership to a credited historical museum.

Does anyone on this board happen to work for a museum type organization that has displays that include live firing examples of historic firearms?

 

[Claven2]

"...stocks of these still exist..." Most of 'em were chopped by the Socialist F**ks, along with most C1A1's, C2's and No. 7's. Mid 90's or earlier, as I recall.
Mind you, they were being chopped in the early 80's too. Reg Force Armoured guy told me he saw 'em being run over with a Leopard, back then. Gunparts bought a lot of C1A1 and C2 parts though.
Army Cadet Corps lost real firearms, locally, years ago. Air rifles only at Corps level, these days. Some hold a few DP No. 4 Rifles for Colour Parties.
Air and Sea Cadets lost recreational shooting in the early 80's. The Air and Sea guys I knew got invited to join me and my Corps on occasion though.

Hmm... that doesn't match my recollection. I was in the Air Cadets (101st in Moncton) in the late 1980's and we still had fireable CNo.7's and No.4MkI*'s, though truth be told they were almost never used. For that matter we also had a few spent LAW launchers in the armory for show and tell - not sure why?

Interestingly, I did a LOT more shooting in the Boy Scouts - nearly every week. Mostly using ex-CF Cooeys and privately owned CNo.7's in the basement of Harrison Tremble High School. I'm told that range is now long since closed.

 

[LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1]

I think we need to patition the MP's to make an exception to the laws and allow the Lee Enfields in the CF to be sold off as surplus. Its a 110 year old desighn FFS.

 

[MapleSugar]

I went into the New West Armoury after the Remembrance Day ceremony in 2005 and spent some time walking through their museum.

I spoke with on of the curators about the weapons they had (mostly WW2 issue and captures) and he said there were some C1A1's in their vault too, but that they would be sent in for destruction eventually.

He didn't seem very happy about it.

They are a museum and a secure facility, yet they are still not immune form the stupidity of the government.

 

[angrysoldier]

we are in the process of sending all c no 7's and no 4's to the smelter. i think the ones already in dp form will be the last ones left. sad so very sad.

 

[fat tony]

I am glad the CF does not dictate domestic policy in Canada, or we would be signing out serialized butter knives to butter our bread with.

 

[bdtyre]

Would love to see an updated list of everything the CF has in storage when it comes to old firearms. I'm sure they still have significant stocks tucked away that have long been forgotten about.

I'm surprised more museums didn't try and get ahold of the old stock the CF destroyed a couple of years ago. I wonder what the process is for them even being notified? And what the requirements/process is to transfer old unneeded stock from CF ownership to a credited historical museum.

Does anyone on this board happen to work for a museum type organization that has displays that include live firing examples of historic firearms?

I remember being in the LTF at CFB Edmonton almost two years ago and being detailed to "clean" their weapons cache. Not sure why we were cleaning weapons that aren't used, but...all sorts of amazing things. Enfields, FALS, Rugers, UZIs, AKs, double barelled shotguns, SPAS 12s, old hunting rifles....

As an aside...if you ever happen to be in the LTF in Edmonton, take note of the weapons moutned as plaques that they have running along the walls. Several of the Lee Enfields are improperly named.

 

[MapleSugar]

I remember being in the LTF at CFB Edmonton almost two years ago and being detailed to "clean" their weapons cache. Not sure why we were cleaning weapons that aren't used, but...all sorts of amazing things. Enfields, FALS, Rugers, UZIs, AKs, double barelled shotguns, SPAS 12s, old hunting rifles....

Gee, I wonder where they got them all?

Besides the Enfields and FALs, that sounds more like a list of weapons surrendered during those stupid amnesties.

 

[Hawkshadow]

Gee, I wonder where they got them all?

Besides the Enfields and FALs, that sounds more like a list of weapons surrendered during those stupid amnesties.

No, no the weapons taken from civil owners wouldn't be put to legitimate use... in their eyes the only use they have is as a refrigerator. The army wouldn't even have weapons if they didn't think we needed them...

 

[woodchopper]

I remember being in the LTF at CFB Edmonton almost two years ago and being detailed to "clean" their weapons cache. Not sure why we were cleaning weapons that aren't used, but...all sorts of amazing things. Enfields, FALS, Rugers, UZIs, AKs, double barelled shotguns, SPAS 12s, old hunting rifles....

As an aside...if you ever happen to be in the LTF in Edmonton, take note of the weapons moutned as plaques that they have running along the walls. Several of the Lee Enfields are improperly named.

I remind them of this every time I happen to be talking to them

 

[John Sukey]

I sometimes wonder if the reason these firearms are destroyed is because the leftist politicians fear they will be "shot out of office" by gun owners.

 

[Ian Robertson]

Apparently the Rangers are in the market for a new rifle because the CF is out of #4's. Not because they want to be or have destroyed them all, they have just run out of them. They freely admit they will have a hard time replacing the #4.

 

[Normmus]

I remind them of this every time I happen to be talking to them

Hahaha!! Glad to see that I am not suffering alone. That bugs me too.

 

[Hawkshadow]

Apparently the Rangers are in the market for a new rifle because the CF is out of #4's. Not because they want to be or have destroyed them all, they have just run out of them. They freely admit they will have a hard time replacing the #4.

Wouldn't seem like an absurd idea to consider the new AIA No4s. Pretty well the best option out there, just different ammunition which is already in the cf supply system.

 

[Don Doucette]

I was in Army Cadets in the 70's and we had many enfields in our armory as well as C1A1's.
Imagine a bunch of 15 and 16 year olds shooting targets with those nasty baby killer guns

Imagine my horror when later I found out just how evil those damn things were...

 

[bearhunter]

The AIA rifles are great, their biggest problem is weight. It is a fact, that Canada purchased a bunch of No4 rifles from India or Pakistan.

RifleChair can chime in here.