Jungle carbine questions that need answering.

The No.5 rifle is a "lightened, shortened" version of the No.4 rifle, conceived for airborne troops.

Weight absorbs recoil. Folding the stock "out of the way" tends to prevent accurate shooting, and missing your target is a bad tactic.
 
enefgee said:
The early 90's were truly a golden age. I was able to buy a new in wrap No4 Mk II for $150, paid the same for an L1A1 and for a few hundred there was an impressive list of rifles leaving service - G3's, real M14's, AR10's. I really should have spent less time chasing girls and more time buying guns.
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As I have often lamented, if I had back half the brain cells I killed off when I was that age.
 
For a matching unaltered specimen, $750-$800 is top dollar to me. If the bolt doesn"t match, the flash hider/bayo lug are altered, the butt pad is wrong or the sites are incorrect, its a $400 dollar gun at best with a good bore.
 
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Looking for a bayonet for mine, and am totally fine with a reproduction if the price is right. Anybody happen to know which are good reproductions? (Authentic look, good fit, etc.). Thanks!
 
The only reproductions that I'm aware of, are the RFI (Rifle Factory Ishapore) knock offs. The photos I've seen on retailers sites make them look godawful - weird shiny finish on the blade (left in the white on British No5s), the pommel shape is off, the scabbard shape is off, etc. I've also noted on a number of listings for the reproductions that "fitting may be required".

Find an original if you can afford it, the prices are going to decline somewhat with the tough times. Heck, I just saw a 1907 Pattern bayonet with hooked quillion listed at about half the going rate just a few months ago.

Sit back and watch the market, see what comes up, take notes, and be in no hurry to buy. But, if the right one comes along be ready to jump PDQ.
 
Were RFI bayonets actual India issue, for their Jungle Carbines?

Or just knockoffs for the consumer market?
 
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Supposedly there was some sort of a small production run of RFI bayonets during the War. I don't know why RFI would have produced them, being that India produced the SMLE throughout the War, and already four variants of the 1907 Pattern bayonet in production... I've never seen photos of a genuine RFI No.5 bayonet - having said that, it's possible they did and they may very well be out there.

The current batch of "RFI" No.5 bayonets are all reproductions and I'm of the opinion that they look like crap.
 
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