Churchill sporter LE

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gerard488

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Anyone hear of or know of Lee Enfield sporters with " Churchill Gunmakers 32 Orange st London England stamped on the barrel? Were they high end sporters ? any value? when were they sportered? I have one and I`m not sure if I want to keep it or not.
Thanks in advance
 
Yes, lots of people have heard of them. The ones I have seen (in pictures) appeared to be similar to my Parker Hale Supreme (second highest grade out of the four PH sporter models based on the No.4 rifles), with metal refinished in polished blue, new foresights, aftermarket stocks rather than cutting down the original military wood. I know PH did No.4 and No.1Mk.III rifles. I have seen Churchills made out of No.4s, can't recall if I have seen any made out of No.1Mk.IIIs

Certainly they have some value as good hunting rifle but modern commercial production makes very good new rifles quite affordable, so the sportered Lee Enfield is not as popular as it used to be. Of course its condition matters and so does your luck, there may or may not be someone wanting one when you post it for sale.

Lots of these rifles were sold off post WWII as armies were reduced but some were kept as war stocks, and lots more of those were released when the U.K. and Canada adopted the FN FAL.
 
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Churchill have been gunmakers for a very long time (since 1891) - what type of LE are we talking about, and what is the wrist stamping. This could be anything from a pre WW1 premium grade sporting rifle built for a Lord to a converted No4. Either way it's far from a "Bubba" unless your version of Bubba builds rifles that today start at $10,000 and go up from there. Churchill's is still in business. They aren't known for building anything average.
 
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Most of the Churchill rifles were pretty plain. They used as few aftermarket parts as possible, to keep costs down.

When they first reached our stores, they were relatively cheap. About half the cost of even the cheapest commercial rifles available at the time.

From what I can remember, they all were in as new condition. They also offered a couple of different styles. One style had a cut down milspec fore end and refinished butt with sling swivels attached. The other had a Monte Carlo butt and slightly different shaped fore end. No checkering was present on any that I saw. All had a varnish type finish. They did command a higher price than the similar models offered by Simpson Sears, Eaton's and the Army Navy stores. Many people got theirs from SIR in Winnepeg, through mail order. I don't know if they were an exclusive importer or not.

They also sporterized K98 Mausers in a similar fashion but I never saw any with cut down military stocks. Plain Claro Walnut was the basic, uncheckered stock.

Some people used to say that Globe Firearms and Churchill Gunmakers were the same company and that the Globe products were the higher end products. Not better shooters but much better finished, with after market, checkered, walnut stocks. That was the rumor anyway and I have no way to verify it. The Globe offerings were always wearing nicely finished furniture and were polished. Some even had chrome plated bolts.
 
I have been told that the Churchill guns were one of the best sporters to find. Does anybody know if they were connected to Globe? I have seen a bunch of Globe rifles and cant say I have been impressed, but mind you they were all well used. I am thinking the right Globe co.? The mohawk .303 etc
 
Well - Churchill was based out of England, and Globe was based out of Ottawa... Having seen both examples of sporterization, I dont think you can say that Globe had a better product. Bear in mind that all of these rifles were targeted to the economy end of the market.
 
Yeah, that was a long time ago. Cosmic, there was some sort of a connection rumored but like I said, I don't know what it was. I speculated that one may be high end and one may be low end. I've also heard that Globe was an importer and that most of the sported milsurps they sold came out of the UK shops as well as other European shops. The SVT38s that were converted were rumored to have come out of Finland. Whether they went to the UK for conversion or not, I have no idea.
 
I have a nice old Churchill No. 1 that has checkering at the wrist and on the forestock. I bought it in 1965 at the local MacLeod's for $65. Pretty fancy in her day.
 
Churchill's were just one of many Brit companies building sporter Lee-Enfields. Ok quality, but mostly just cosmeticly pretty stocks and new finishes. No collector value.
Globe was Globco. Builders of unsafe junk. Just like Century was doing in Montreal at the time.
Kjohn's $65 was a huge pile of money in 1965. Could have bought a lot of Lee-Enfield's for that much then.
 
kjohn said:
I have a nice old Churchill No. 1 that has checkering at the wrist and on the forestock. I bought it in 1965 at the local MacLeod's for $65. Pretty fancy in her day.
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I'm willing to bet it has a walnut, monte carlo butt and fore end. Does it have the chromed bolt???

Some of those rifles were lovely things and their top line models featured some very desirable features for the time.

There were still lots of ex servicemen around that trusted and loved the Lee Enfield platform. Most of those fellows are now really getting long in the tooth or gone to their maker. At least there are still some who understand how good those rifles really were and are. So many people look at you strangely when you tell them they are every bit as powerful as the average 308 Win and kissing cousins with the 30-06 as far as delivered energy on target goes.

Both the Globe offerings and the Churchill offerings came in different stages of sporterizing. Some had the charger bridges milled off and scope mounts added, some had after market stocks and some had polished, blued and shortened barrels.

One thing we need to understand. Back in the day, you could buy both loaded ammo and components with bullets that were of the proper diameter so the rifles would be accurate. .311 to .315. The barrels were as new. They shot well, if the shooter did his/her part and got the proper diameter bullets. Same goes for every other milsurp out there. They all have varying bore diameters. Even those fabulous Swede M96s.

We are spoiled today. When you buy a 30 caliber rifle, new off the shelf the bore diameters are so close to median spec, you can almost set your micrometer by them.

The nice thing about the Globe and Churchill offerings is that they were done properly and could be trusted to do what they were designed to do and do it well. Often, Bubba just wasn't satisfied with the product and just had to remove the fore end. Then, they would lose the space on the King screw and cinch it down tight. Recipe for a disaster in the making. The rifle was no longer accurate and likely as not the wood was crushed, screwing up the bedding and maybe even cracked.
 
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