Lee Enfield Help

C

CerealBlast

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Hi Guys,

I'm very new to the Lee Enfield world and have recently aquired two. One is a jungle cabine and the other is this one. Can someone help me with the year on this one? and any additional info would be much appreciated. Thanks for looking :)

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The other is a SMLE (aka No1MKIII*) target rifle, however the target sight has been disassembled. The date will be on the right hand butt socket, along with the manufacturer. It has a ball burnuished, that provided it isn't shot out, should still shoot very nicely
 
I've looked everywhere on this gun, i can't find the year for the life of me. Anyone care to guess a range for the year?
 
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It has a commercial-type BSA-marked barrel but could have been made on military contract.

As has been pointed out, this one has spent time in A.G. Parker's shop, during which time the barrel was Ball Burnished to remove as much roughness as was possible from the manufacturing process. This has been a very good Target rifle in its time and it is entirely possible that it still will make 1200-yard targets which would astonish most people...... and do it with just about any decent MilSpec ammo.

Cdn303 is giving you good advice: flip that bolt handle up and take a close look at what is there. That's where they used to hide the manufacturing information: "Purloined Letter" method.

THEN get back to us with a nice clear photo of what you find. We can tell a lot from that.
 
take the top piece of wood off behind the rear sight some times its stamped on top of the barrel. it just pops off.
my 42 was on the side of the barrel under the wood. have a look.

 
It is a BSA COMMERCIAL rifle, BUILT as a Target rifle for long-range competitions.

The rifles had to be built to military SPECS for the matches they were used in, but they were built slowly and very carefully.

A few (and this is one) then went to small, private shops (A.G.Parker, Parker & Hale, George Gibbs, Holland & Holland, Alex Martin in Glasgow) where they were worked-over yet again to become the finest Service Rifle competition pieces in the world.

Under the rules of the old Service Rifle competitions, the rifles had to start as identical to an Army rifle, 100% INSIDE the military specs: no heavy barrels, bobbed bayonet lugs or anything like that. The rifle COULD be modified for the shoots, but any modification made HAD to be able to be removed and the rifle returned to battlefield condition with NO TOOL OTHER THAN A SCREWDRIVER. This meant that fancy precision sights were okay, but they had to come off fast.

When the competition came, you showed up at the firing line and your rifle was examined to make sure that it complied with the regs. Then you were ISSUED your ammo for that target. It could be anything that the Army had in storage - any make, any year, any Lot number, any Mark - but it had been stored properly and met military specs and that was ALL you knew about it. For a 600-yard shoot, you needed 15 rounds, so you were issued 17: the extra 2 rounds were supposed to be enough to let you sight-in your rifle for that ammo, at that range, and figure out how the rifle should be held for that ammo, at that range, in those wind and temperature conditions.

It was the most difficult competition in the world and it is one which has passed out of fashion in this day of cheap optics, heavy barrels and super-accurate special ammo.

But that was the competition for which your rifle was built...... and it was built to WIN.
 
I'm not the OP (obviously) Smellie, but what do you figure a rifle like that might be worth - just in case I luck up and get my meathooks on one?(sorry 'bout the hijack, but even the OP might wanna know ;) )

OP, that's a nice looking SMLE ya got there. Mind if I ask where you found her??
 
I really don't do values, friend, because that's not why I'm into these things.

If I really wanted one of these (which I do) and if I had the money (which I do not) and if the bore still was good (which we do not know), then I would figure it should be worth 800 bucks, so I would go anywhere up to that figure. Some may go higher, others not that high. It is a very highly-subjective thing.

A rifle such as this was built for international-level competitions which were (and are) under the auspices of the DCRA: Dominion of Canada Rifle Association. If this rifle was actually USED in top-level competitions (Palma, Camp Perry, National shoot in Ottawa, Commonwealth shoot in Bisley) then THEY WILL HAVE A RECORD OF IT.

That is the beauty of rifles such as this one: they are historic pieces which CAN be researched.
 
That's very interesting, it was my friends grandfather's rifle. I think that his grandfather may have been from Ottawa. How would I go about finding these records of the competitions?
 
Get in touch with the DCRA.

They are still around, in Ottawa, and they have a website.

In their records they will have complete rosters of EVERY team that shot in the Nationals, every Palma team, every team that went to Camp Perry, every team that ever went to Bisley and, likely, to the Commonwealth Games as well. They MIGHT not have Olympic records but you never know.

It will be a paper-chase, but at least you know where to find the paper.

If rifle or owner ever won a trophy, they will have the name AND rifle (by serial number) on the list for that Trophy's history.

Hope this helps.

When you find out WHOSE rifle this was, get back to us here. SOME of us are old enough to have known some of these people, a few are old enough even to have shot with them.

And a point: NOBODY who was not already VERY damned good would have laid out the time and money for a rifle such as this. This rifle DEFINITELY has a history. Your job is to FIND it and DOCUMENT it.

Good luck.
 
Looking at the pictures again.

The BUTT is definitely military, even has the "Sold Out of Service" mark.

That is NOT a problem; the guys that shot these critters used to switch butts and other parts around all the time. At least the wood is a nice match; many were not!
 
There seems to be a chunk of metal missing from the bolt, just forward of the cocking piece, and under the bolt handle. It looks like it's missing the lug under the detent at the very rear of the bolt. That's probably not the right terminology, though...
 
pretty sure what your talking about is part of how the enfiled cocks, if you look at the piece "missing" its at the perfect angle that when the bolt closes it would be inline with the sear(not sure if thats the right wording but im sure ill be corrected)
 
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