Enfield 303 converted to 22
- Thread starter luckyhex
- Start date
For collectors, such as ourselves, "someone" destroyed a very nice rifle.
Just remember, back in the fifties/sixties/seventies, every Lee Enfield variant was available to the public at fire sale prices. The distributors bought them for pennies a pound.
In the early sixties, I remember Alan Lever bidding on and getting several hundred Long Branch No4 MKI* rifles. They were ftrs, still in long term storage grease. Eight pallets of them, stacked fifteen rifles per tier (nothing between tiers) slathered in cosmolene and stacked so high, there was less than six inches between the rifles on the top row and the roof of the tractor trailer. They were all strapped down with steel banding and there weren't any pads to protect the rifles where they contacted them on the edges.
My job was to clean off as much grease as possible, without stripping them down, so they could go up to the showroom for sale. They sold for $12 each.
That's just one example.
The OPs rifle is symptom of the mentality back in the day. Wages were low and only well heeled folks could afford a decent factory built sporter of any type.
Every Tom, #### and Harriet considered themselves to be competent DoItYourselfers. Martially dressed firearms were often frowned upon, simply because the brought back bad memories and very much like today, were considered to only suitable as mankillers.
Sooooooooooooo people cut them down, with the full intentions of using them for hunting and maybe target shooting. The rifles were often bargains, never to be seen again, until the 6.5x55 Swedes came onto the market and later the Soviet Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifles. I'm willing to bet at least half of those rifles that came into Canada faced the ravages of Bubba.
Those days are gone, which I believe you noticed.
If it weren't for the overflowing cornucopia of surplus firearms and ammo, most of the folks back in those days wouldn't have been able to afford to purchase a hunting rifle or even the ammunition.
Those Bubbas, paved the way for the hunting, target shooting, gunsmithing we appreciate so much today. Without Bubba and his skillsets, only the wealthy could afford to shoot or hunt.
Yes, for those of us that appreciate pristine examples of times past, that rifle is a sacrilege. But how many folks did it inspire to get into shooting regimens/hunting?
Mr Lever paid ten cents per pound for them, delivered to his store on Dunsmuir Street.
ipscgraz
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I have to agree with the above post; unless you pay enough money to get your attention, many items are treated casually. And Lever Arms did bring in many many guns at very good prices.
The best example of what bearhunter said was my older brother cutting down a Martini Henry 577/450 for a “deer rifle”...
The best example of what bearhunter said was my older brother cutting down a Martini Henry 577/450 for a “deer rifle”...
You could purchase different models of Martini rifles in 577-450 in pristine condition, inside and out for $15 when I first saw them in his store. They went down in value as condition deteriorated. Bayonets were $3 each and ammo was sold in wooden boxes with heavy, tarred card paper liners, 100 per box for $5.
They later brought in Martini Metfords and Martini Enfields in 303 British. They were a bit more expensive and condition/price went from Excellent NOS to FTR EXC, on down to junk grade.
Some of them had their barrels worn right down to the bore at the muzzle from riding in gritty scabbards. Many were sold as parts only rifles.
We spent a whole week welding together three rifles at the receivers, and around a ring at the muzzle to make lamp stands for Golden State arms. They bolted them to wooden platforms, threaded one of the muzzles to accept a bulb receptacle with a switch and ran an extension cord through one of the receivers, after removing the block.
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Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
Anyone care to post the pictures?
Anyone care to post the pictures?
OF What???? 60 year old ads from Golden State Arms of Sherwood??? Get real here. Cell phones of any sort were still science fiction in those days.
I remember going to Sherwood Dist and buying mint m1 carbine parts and new wood .
It cost 1/3 of the cost to ship it to Canada
We bought containers of guns in Israel and the transportation costs were more than the guns cost
But, a lot of the bubba guns didn't make it through 50 years of use
It cost 1/3 of the cost to ship it to Canada
We bought containers of guns in Israel and the transportation costs were more than the guns cost
But, a lot of the bubba guns didn't make it through 50 years of use
Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
...of the gun described by the OP. Surely someone has PMd him for pics by now?
