Lee Metford sporter

GAIRLOCHIAN

GAIRLOCHIAN

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I have what I believe to be a commercial Lee Metford sporter.It is stamped Andrews on the Nock's Form and E on the barrel. Lee Speed Patents BSA Co on the right side of buttsocket.It has a mag cutoff.Marbles rear sight and 21 in. barrel.Stock is checkered on the pistol grip and forearm.Is this an original sporter?
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I've got virtually the same rifle. I bought it from K98action. Mine has Andrews stamped on it as well. From what I understand, Andrews was a gunsmith in London in the early 20th century and made sporting rifles from surplus Lee Enfields, among other things. I think you have a #1 Mk1 Lee Enfield that has been sporterized many years ago. A Lee Metford has a Metford rifled barrel. Google Metford rifling and check the barrel, its very shallow compared to Enfield rifling. The idea was to reduce fouling from the early 303 BP rounds. The next generation of Cordite rounds burned the barrels out quickly so they went to the Enfield rifled barrels. A nice rifle and certainly not a "bubba". Afterthought: That's what Val Kilmer carried in The Ghost and the Darkness.
Kilmer_right.jpg

Photo credit: GrantR (Who else?) :)
 
GAIRLOCHIAN said:
It is stamped Andrews on the knoxform and E on the barrel.
Click to expand...

The "E" indicated "Enfield" rifling as opposed to Metford, as mentioned above.

As the "knoxform" was invented by Henry Nock, it's usually called the "Nock's Form". Just giving credit where credit is due.;)

The rifle shown above has an SMLE cocking piece for some reason.
 
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Not sure about the Andrews tag but if it has Lee Speed Patents on the socket, it a legit Lee Speed and you have all about won the lottery as far as collectable sporting Lees. I'd say it looks like one of the more "base models" no. 3 pattern. Great find, I'm envious. And the cocking piece looks right to me with the safety folded down.
 
It is not a #3 pattern rifle, it is a carbine model of some sort. There is a 1912 BSA Reprint that shows Lee Speed #1,2,3 pattern "high velocity rifles" as well as some carbines, one called an "officers model".
 
Lee Speed

If it says Speed's patents, then it is indeed a Lee Speed commercial model made by BSA. Patents expired and were no longer marked on the receiver after 1910, so that helps to date it.

Many models with mixture of options. Yours was retailed through the gunmaker as mentioned. Your wood set doesn't look to be as those from the factory, perhaps custom. The rear sight is a replacement.

Being a commercial model the barrel would not have the E marked on the nocks form, so perhaps the barrel has been replaced with a military one at some point.

Nice find :)
 
I think the magazine is not right for this rifle. Any of the Lee Speed rifles I've seen have all had the 5 round mag.
I have a carbine that is different from yours. The butt stock is as per milspec but the wood is incredible, lots of fiddleback etc. It once had a long range sight mounted on the wrist. I would love to find another. The bolt handle is flattened against the butt socket and it has an engraved metal action cover that is friction fitted to the bolt, like yours and is marked "Army Navy Society". The flattened knob on the bolt is marked with crossed flags.
The barrel has the metford style rifling and is a gain twist. The butt socket has a 1/8in wide engraving pattern on both edges and is marked "Lee Speed Patent, BSA Co. 1896". There is also a crown over the date. It also has the cut off.
I just had to take it out and shoot it. It shoots into about 4in at 100 consistantly.
It also likes heavy bullets at moderate velocities, such as 200 and 220 grain round nose. Lighter 150 grain bullets don't group well at all.
It kicks like a mule. Not at all fun to shoot with the heavy bullets.

Nice looking rifle by the way Gairlochian.
 
a ten round magazine is correct, they were available in both ten and five. To tell if it's truly correct, one would honestly need to see it closer and out of the rifle. But in all honesty it's a good pic, but not enough detail is visible on many areas to truly assess the rifle and how original it is or not. Reason I said number three pattern is the shaped stock w/o the pommel, round bolt handle and bolt safety and no horn cap. The Barrel length may be mis-measured or for some reason altered, or even a replacement. Garlochian post more pics and we can likely do a better job identifying it fully. There was a pretty good thread discussing a similar Lee Speed a while ago here...link

My MLE clone handles great and doesn't kick much more than a normal SMLE, but rises a lot more without the weight up front (mind you it has a 28"bbl). I love shooting it and since being re-crowned it places 174gn Hornady handloads in 3"@100 yds off a bag
 
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Looking a bit more at it it could be a #4 pattern sporting carbine that was checkered by Andrews (as They typically weren't checkered to the best of my knowledge).
 
The numbers on the barrel and reciever match but bolt does not.Headspace is very good. Bore has Enfield rifling in good plus condition.Thanks for the info.
Anyone have ballpark figure on value in this condition?
 
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Here's my Lee Speed BSA Sporter, alongside its modern brother, a BSA Imperial which I'm selling.. NOT THE OLD,, Girl she is staying with me.. It's valued at $1000 plus.

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