Interesting Long Branch *pics added*

Lee Enfield said:
The common "slipper" LB safety starts in @late'43- early'44.

Long Branch No4 rifles were originally blued until midway thru 1950.

LB butt plates are either diamac/zinc alloy or blued/blackened steel.

LB barrels are not serial numbered after @mid 1943.

I know a number of people who change barrels regularly to get one with the minimum bore dimentions, smoothest internal finish, correct chamber or headspace problems.

I know people who seek out 2groove barrels and those who avoid them.

If you like it keep it. It's whatever makes you happy...
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Oh, I'll keep it, it's one of my favs, just trying to piece together the most likely senario on how it came to be. The barrel is a 5 groove that is mint grove wise and mirror bright. Could be someone put it on because they thought it would be better than the original.
 
Either way it's a very attractive Long Branch that at some point had been rebarreled and refinished. Keep it and enjoy it. One thing for sure is when dealing with Long Branch there is no "for sure". I have a really nice CA re-arsenaled '43 that other than the receiver and the '43 dated LB five groove bbl, it loaded with mkI parts, and I know for 100% that it was not in civilian hands before the importer I got it from and was still covered in cosmo when I unpacked it.

IIRC Long Branch did use beech in '44 but I seem to recall that they did in fact stain them to make then dark (dark rifles are harder to see in the brush) which is likely the dark tone in the inletting.
 
Lee Enfield said:
The common "slipper" LB safety starts in @late'43- early'44.

Long Branch No4 rifles were originally blued until midway thru 1950.

LB butt plates are either diamac/zinc alloy or blued/blackened steel.

LB barrels are not serial numbered after @mid 1943.

I know a number of people who change barrels regularly to get one with the minimum bore dimentions, smoothest internal finish, correct chamber or headspace problems.

I know people who seek out 2groove barrels and those who avoid them.

If you like it keep it. It's whatever makes you happy...
Click to expand...

Ya, I'm just guessing that it that it was reblued. The rest of the parts just look darker than the barrel. Who knows? I know about the change to parkerizing in 1950 as I had a '50 that was comprised of both blued and parked parts. Didn't know about the barrel serial numbers though (I guess I should have since I've had a few later dated ones) and I thought all LB's had the alloy butt plates. Guess not, good to know. I was going to add that part, which you just covered, that someone may have wanted a specific barrel with a certain number of rifling grooves.

macadoodle said:
I agree there are lots of things that don't add up, thats why I was asking for input. The butt plate is actually blued. What I don't understand about someone re-barreling it is that if you see it in person it is obvious that the receiver has not been used. it's not possible that someone shot out the barrel with no receiver wear. It seems more likely it was put together from parts or that the original barrel was damaged and then changed.
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I guess there might be a F53 out there with your LB barrel! ;) In light of the serial number not being stamped on later LB barrels, maybe you should find a LB barrel. Either way it's still a nice rifle. Have you shot it yet? :)
 
Haven't been looking into this for a while, but wanted to sum it up so far.

Maple wood( I have no idea how to tell the difference)
according to Purple "The wood could be Cdn maple. The tell-tale signs are the C broad arrow and superimposed LB over the number 32 stampings. Check for these on the forend bottom just behind the nosecap and on the bottom of the butt just behind the trigger guard."

The barrel? seems to be quite a few websites with 5 groove LB guns examples:
http://www.bdlltd.com/mil_sale.htm (would like to be able to buy from this site)

according to skennerton non were made here so all of the 5 groove must have been imported. To me that means the barrel could be original. Also this "MP" longbranch has the identical crown markings "AGP BALL BURNISHED" as mine.
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.aspx?Item=152595548

seems to me this one was made up similar to the "MP" or greek CNo4mk1s' for non military sale, including the "not in service" barrel markings.


anymore insights?
 
nice canadian birch ,someone went throuh a lot of work to remove the factory finish.if you look in some of the corners you can see the original colour.
 
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