EAL Buckhorn sight variant? With Pics.

cantom

cantom

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I've seen EAL civilian and EAL military style rifles. Owned a few of each. From time to time I've seen EAL's for sale on the EE with buckhorn Winchester type rear sights.
I'd assumed at the time that these were bubbaed by owners over the years.

But, I recently picked up one of these rifles myself. Upon inspection I've personally concluded that this rifle left the factory like this. No sign of the other types of sights having been removed.

On the EAL military, you can't see the rear sight plunger holes. Normally when the rear sight ears are milled off, there is a hole left there, that formerly contained the rear sight tensioning spring.

EAL somehow filled these holes in. This rifle has the same characteristic. The area where the receiver rear sight ears were ground or machined off has the same patina on it that the rest of the rifle receiver does. Nothing recently done. No sign of the barrel mounted 200/400 flip sight. I'd be willing to bet that it left the factory like this.

I asked Warren Wheatfield his opinion and he felt that they would have made whatever people wanted.

Today I took this rifle to the range and was very impressed. So smooth cycling, and so accurate. At 100 yards I couldn't miss the steel hanging plates, even rapid firing it. This was using 1943 DI .303 ball.

I call my rifle an EAL Buckhorn. :)
 
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I believe this rifle left the factory in this configuration. Anyone else's thoughts on that are welcome.

Note the extra smaller CA Canadian Arsenals proof on the barrel between the normal one and the sight dovetail...I haven't seen that on any other version of the EAL.
 
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rgg_7 said:
Any markings on side wall to indicate EAL?
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Oh yes, it's a normal EAL with .303 Cal. , E.A.L. and the s/n.

EALBuckhorn23Large_zps8533bcdb.jpg
 
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most likely your rifle was rebarreled at some time. eal civilian barrel on military action.
the military action eal never had the sight plunger hole drilled .
there is a drastic bluing colour difference between the action and barrel.
 
Yes, the sight plunger hole...which was never drilled, indicating the rifle left the factory as it is, with a barrel mounted sight.

As for the colour difference...patina will do funny things with different metals after 60 years of handling and hunting.

The seller doesn't believe EAL's machinsts (S.T. Francis and Sons at 166A York Street, Toronto) would have done such things as how the barrel sight is installed and how the rear sight ears were ground off of the receiver.

Once again, note the extra CA proof stamped on the barrel under the buckhorn sight. Never seen that on any other EAL and I've seen plenty.

I'd love to have another similar rifle to compare features with.

https://webpages.uidaho.edu/stratton/EALrifle.htm
 
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I looked at the one for sale and the seller sent some additional pics.

The serial number is 3### range. The lack of ears at rear of the receiver made me wonder if it was a military receiver but the serial number leans towards civilian.

The dove tail for the buckhorn seemed to be further forward than the location of the military two leaf express sight.

I think the seller also indicated that he has an extra receiver?

Looks like a nice gun. Not sure if it a legit variant or not
 
cantom said:
Yes, the sight plunger hole...which was never drilled, indicating the rifle left the factory as it is, with a barrel mounted sight.

As for the colour difference...patina will do funny things with different metals after 60 years of handling and hunting.

The seller doesn't believe EAL's machinsts (S.T. Francis and Sons at 166A York Street, Toronto) would have done such things as how the barrel sight is installed and how the rear sight ears were ground off of the receiver.

https://webpages.uidaho.edu/stratton/EALrifle.htm
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cantom I usually agree with you and it would not surprise me a bit that EAL put out a few with buckhorn sights. I have handled a couple that had them, and none of them looked like professional work to me. I am agreeing with the current seller on this one.

The plunger hole is likely there. Who ever did the work probably swaged in a pin before ears where milled/ground off. There are at least three backyard machinists here that I would trust to do as good or better work.

I cannot believe that EAL would put the sight so far back on the barrel it just does not look right. They would have put it a bit forward and used the higher style of buckhorn which is readily available or lowered the front ramp.

I agree with what you say about patina. But for what it is worth. I have three EALs here about that vintage and none of them have that drastic difference in colour.
 
cantom said:
Once again, note the extra CA proof stamped on the barrel under the buckhorn sight. Never seen that on any other EAL and I've seen plenty.[/url]
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One of mine with a serial # pretty close to this one, has the small CA stamp in the same location ahead of the knox. I didn`t even notice it until today.

Another has the same small stamp just ahead of the large CA on the knox-form flat.
 
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CMichaud said:
I wonder if there are any factory records that are out there somewhere
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Nope. Warren tried. No such animals.

Which leaves us, guessing.

Closest I've seen is a couple of comments from Bearhunter, who recalls working at Lever Arms when a shipment came in from EAL, with multiple different variations.

BTW, since there was nothing wrong with the original 200/400 military flip sights on the receivers...why would anyone have gone to the trouble to grind the ears off, fill in the plunger hole, and install a different sight?
 
the only thing that makes me wonder is why isn't the dovetail blued inside. I would be fairly sure because of the plunger hole missing this did come from EAL this way, but why
 
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