Ishapore 2A.

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

LeeEnfieldNo.4_mk1

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Buddy of mine told me about an Ishapore 2A he saw, so I went down and had a look. Bore was good, most serials match and price seemed OK and since they seem to be a bit rarer then your standard Enfield so I picked it up. Came with a sling and a Ishapore Bayonet with frog and scabbard.

I have a few question though. The rifle is mostly matching, barrel, bolt, magazine and rear sight all match. The fore-stock However was mismatched so at first I thought it was a restoration, but it had the squared off nose piece and everything seems to fit together well. Is it common for these to have older mismatched stocks on them? I looked at my copy of Skennertons book and looks like it does have an Ishapore Fore-stock, but not a matching one. Also, speaking of the nose cap, is it correct for a 2A to have the squared off cap? the cap is also crooked, I thought it was the sight base but the cap definitely has a cant to it.

Normally I steer clear of enfields unless I know they are original, but I figure this rifle was hard enough to find in Canada so I took the chance. Figured 7.62x51 ammo is a lot easier to find then .303 so this could make a good shooter example of a "SMLE" style rifle.
Opinions? Ill try to get pics up but Photo bucket does not work anymore.
 
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I've only looked at a few , so I'm no expert , but a good friend of mine , now past , had one that sounds exactly like yours . Mismatched fore stock , and the sight guard was a little out of kilter . I have had , and still have one , Ishapore No1's in 303 , the front sight guard on my current one is about the same . It doesn't effect the rifle in any way , it shoots great , but it seems the Ishapore rifles were just put together with bigger tolerances than some of the other armories . It's also entirely possible that I'm totally wrong lol .
By the way , Ernies 2A shot extremely well with certain ammo . I've never owned one myself , but would like to , we'll see , they don't come up often .
 
Got it apart, someone definitely got in there before I bought it. Also looks like it might have some sort of wax, I accidentally spilled some solvent on the stock and it stripped off some sort of coating from a small area. Would this be a wax or varnish or can a patina sometimes be stripped off?

Metal looks to have been painted black as well. Suncronite maybe?
 
I had a matching one I bought 25+ years ago and finally sold it to Riflechair I liked it until I shot it.
It was a nice gun but tore the face off me when I fired it. Recoil was good but my cheek weld was brutal the sights are low and I only fired a mag out of it cleaned it up and sold it. I kept my other one that's been restocked in Australian wood, I have a spare set of 2A stocks for it.
 
Interchanging Mklll stocks wouldn't be surprising at all , considering the thriftiness of the Ishapore factory.
My '68 2A1 has a curved nosecap





 
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