June Purchases

Drachenblut

Drachenblut

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Hello,

I thought it a little late for this posting to be up, so I thought I might as well start it, I hope it becomes stickied.

My first purchase for this month, a Finnish Civil Guard/Finnish Army/Czarist Russian M-91 made by Sestroryetsk in 1917. The rifle is double "S" marked, stating it was bought by the Army, then I believe re-sold or given back to the Civil Guard, as there are two "district" unit markings, one lined out. The original issue was the Western Finnish Railway Hub of Kokkola, the second, the more north-western town of Raahe. The Czar Nicholaz II eagle is not rubbed off the reciever, but the barrel eagle has been (perhaps in spite) stamped over with the Finnish SA army marking. The bore is good to very good, sharp rifling and only a little darkness near the muzzle. Bolt, barrel, buttplate all match, and the stock is not a Finn fingerjoint, but original one piece, minus the buttstock which has been dovetailed together. The Finns removed the stock disk on the side and left it bare. The Arshini on the rear sight sides have not been ground off or lined out. Many of the parts are soaked in old cosmo, and will need a good cleaning, but there is extremely little rust on the exterior.

All in all, a magnificent rifle worth of the hands that carried her into battle! For more pictures, PM me, as I do not want to clog this page too badly.

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Well, our Dragon-Bloody buddy Drachenblut got this off to a start, so I may as well brag.

And bragging it is.

It took me 40 years of scrounging around on a minimal budget to come up with a real Sparkbrook Lee-Enfield. Two years ago, I found one, an 1897, British stamps, South African stamps, Navy stamps, BSA rework to a lovely 30-inch-barrel sporter, 95% original BSA (re)finish.... just one of the most beautiful old rifles I have ever encountered and worth the wait.

Then, just about 4 days ago, which brings us into JUNE (which is why this is here) friend BUFFDOG was helping a little old lady to clean out her basement, being the good chap that he is. Among the stuff to go to the dump was a rusty old piece of iron pipe, so he dropped it off here, announcing it as a "paperweight".

SPARKBROOK frame, stamped "LE I". 1897. Navy stamps. British stamps. NO South African stamps on this one, but the underside of the barrel bears a striking resemblance to the Greater London telephone directory: 6 entire inches of tiny stamps. And View marks right up to early 1915. The serial number is only 7014 from my other rifle, so I only need a few thousand more to fill in the gaps!

Bore is not bad at all, but the barrel is only 26 inches in length. This one will become a "short-Long Lee-Enfield", a rifle I always wanted but no-one ever made except as an experimental. It will be (a) impossible to sell as a fake, and (b) a heck of a nice rifle. Fortunately, I have most of the parts on hand, mostly in my junk bin, although it will need a barrelband and nose-cap/bayonet lug. I was thinking of using original Long Lee parts for this, if I can find them. They ARE more than a bit scarce in this neck of the woods.

So lightning has struck twice in the same place. If I were a puppydog, I would want two tails right now, just so I could wag them both!

June is a VERY good month!

What do you other guys have?
 
Not a firearm, but held ten of them and Milsurp, a SKS box and packing slip from the current batch of SKS's, got it from a store in Vancouver just as it was unpacked. Pity has memories now of most disgusting service treatment. It's darn heavy empty, must be quite something full, there where even bigger ones there, not sure how many rifles would be in the bigger ones.

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I got a 1936 Ishapore from a cgn'er for a good price...it is being restorated now...just waiting for some wood to show up in the mail.

It has a mag cutoff, something I never had on one before.

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It'll go into the reto sticky as well.
 
Well done, nice rifle. You must be really happy because you were able to capture an orb in the first photo ( it's half way between the rear sight and lower barrel band)

What is the crest on your receiver?
 
Hmmm. What is an "orb" you speak of? Looks like some kind of impregnation in the wood in picture #2?

Oh! For my second purchase, a Model 1910 Canadian Ross Sporter, I am unsure of the date (how do I find out when it was made?) from a fellow CGN'er, a nice handy and extremely heavy rifle for it's size, built like a tank! I do like it. Here is a picture.

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This is pretty much my favourite thread on CGN. Always lots of milsurps to learn about and lust over, and this month is no exception. Nice rifles,guys.

Drach, nice to see you got a Ross. The date lives in the right hand side of the stock, but it looks like yours has been sanded (as appears to be the case in a lot of the sporterized military rifles.) I had a 1905 sporter with a rough buttstock. I was able to get at least some of the markings visible by shining a UV light at it. Might be worth a shot. My understanding is that the closest you'll ever be able to get to determining date is year of birth, as records are largetly non-existent.
 
Rover,

What sort of digital code or inscription would I be looking for that would indicate the year of manufacture? Honestly I find it odd they would stamp the DOM on the wood, not the metal? I guess they never intended stocks to be replaced?
 
Your date of manufacture was always stamped on the right side of the butt on military Rosses.

Generally, the whole rifle number should be there and there also is a roundel from the factory.

Dates/numbers generally were something like:

123BX
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1916

It should be possible to reconstruct some sort of timetable for manufacture from the letter-groups, but likely it would take a fair bit of work. I believe there is something in that wonderful Duguid book about this, but don't have a copy. Next pension cheque!

The ones that really mess you up are the ones like my 16th Batt rifle: just letter prefix A and a 4-digit number, no date, no coding at all. I have only seen the one serial number like it, but it is original to the rifle. Likely quite early, I would think. It was a 16 Bn rifle, then went to the Navy and DEFINITELY saw sea service: holes for rack-hasp still in wood.

Allright, enough of me!

Let's see some more treasures up here!

That's what we're all here for!


PS: not right to be in this thread without a new toy. Okay, here goes: just today, got a 15-SKS crate: another REAL big box to fill fulla junque!
 
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r.fallon said:
Well done, nice rifle. You must be really happy because you were able to capture an orb in the first photo ( it's half way between the rear sight and lower barrel band)

What is the crest on your receiver?
Click to expand...


It says Fabrica Armas
La Coruna 1949
And has an eagle or something.

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No, the mum is gone & the bolt is mismatched. The bore is the only reason I bought it. Judging by the condition of the stock, it couldn't have seen much use.
 
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