Lithgow No.1 Mk III* with a little problem (test fired today)

AdrianM

AdrianM

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I went to a Military Surplus show and sale at the Legion in Great Village NS. It was a small show but there was a nice assortment of collectibles there. Tons of badges and various memorabilia. One gentleman had a nice collection of German WWII stuff. There were a handful of Milsurp rifles for sale. A friend and I haggled over an Eddystone P14, a Ross, and this Lithgow.

At first glance, the nosepiece, receiver, and bolt match. But it's a bit of a frankenrifle. The wrist is dated 1943 I think...but on the other parts of the rifle, the finish and stamps are in better shape.

I see it has been FTR'd at some point. Also the rear upper handguard looks homemade. Will be looking to replace that I think. The bore is good with good rifling. The rest of the wood is pretty, but shows signs of sanding, albeit lightly and almost totally concealed.

What does the MAS 59 stamp and the BA under the nosepiece mean?

The rifle will not #### and the trigger is just freely swinging. When I get some time I'll disassemble and look to see what's broke.

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This is the homebrew handguard. It's not half bad other than the sanding marks and it's still a little too wide.

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The Trigger has no tension.

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The price was right and I didn't have a SMLE yet. Should be a fun project.
 
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It's a 1943 rifle FTR'd in 1959.

If no pressure on the Trigger, then either it is assembled incorrectly or (less likely) you are lacking a Sear Spring.

Number 4 Sear Spring works, BTW. This is good for me as I have a binfull of them and lack Number 1 parts by the bushel!

How do you get the idea that the rear upper guard is "homemade"? Those brass pins are actually screwed rod, correctly factory inserted to prevent breakage of the part. There was lots of oversize wood made, some of the Indian stuff being almost ridiculous, but there also was o/s Aussie wood. This has just been sanded for a better fit onto an existing wood set.

Australian practice normally was to mark the history of the rifle onto the right side of the Butt. My 1918 has its original 1918 markings, plus rebuild markings from 1931 and 1944. Yours is marked on the Body (MA 59) but you show no Butt markings, so I am assuming a new Butt in 1959.

Make sense?
 
I'm no expert but I believe the "Mas" is actually "MA 59". I looked online and MA is a lithgow new south wales Australia manufacture stamp. The wood is very nicely colored, looks just like the wood on my 1916 Australian no1 mk3. When you pull it apart you may find that the sear in the trigger group is either broken or missing. Nice pick up!
 
smellie said:
It's a 1943 rifle FTR'd in 1959.

If no pressure on the Trigger, then either it is assembled incorrectly or (less likely) you are lacking a Sear Spring.

Number 4 Sear Spring works, BTW. This is good for me as I have a binfull of them and lack Number 1 parts by the bushel!

How do you get the idea that the rear upper guard is "homemade"? Those brass pins are actually screwed rod, correctly factory inserted to prevent breakage of the part. There was lots of oversize wood made, some of the Indian stuff being almost ridiculous, but there also was o/s Aussie wood. This has just been sanded for a better fit onto an existing wood set.

Australian practice normally was to mark the history of the rifle onto the right side of the Butt. My 1918 has its original 1918 markings, plus rebuild markings from 1931 and 1944. Yours is marked on the Body (MA 59) but you show no Butt markings, so I am assuming a new Butt in 1959.

Make sense?
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I just thought that the piece was so oversize and with the rough sanding marks still visible it wasn't likely to be done by an armoury. Thanks for the corrections and yes, what you say makes sense.

Thanks everyone for your input.

I really like this rifle. It's very pretty and another important part to my modest but growing enfield collection. Hope it shoots well.
 
After some sage advice from a good nutter I pulled the trigger guard off and this fell out. Busted...

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No biggie, I got friends with parts. ;)
 
I cleaned the bore last night; it wasn't horribly bad. The rifling great. Lots left and sharp and only a little darkness in the grooves. Should be a good shooter.
 
Got a spring from a pal last night at my rifle club. Stuck it in tonight and she's almost ready for the range.

I gotta free up the safety which is seized and check the headspace. The more I tinker with this old girl the more I like it. The metal finish is a little ugly; no shine and even rough in places. But it appears that it's seen little use over the last several years. Its got lots of linseed oil in the screws and built up on the edges of the trigger guard.

Hopefully shoot it this weekend.
 
the rear top handguard in my opinion does NOT look homemade, ive seen many out there that look like that, you have to remember the British Empire produced the No1 mk3 for +30 years, so many parts varied.
 
Based on the opinions of some good nutters, I am also convinced that the handguard was armourer installed and am not thinking of replacing it anymore.

I got the safety apart and freed up. It wasn't rusty, just old oil and dirt made a shellac and it was all gooed up and hardened. One step closer to shooting.

Now, if I could only get the rear sight freed up I'd be happy...it's stuck solid as well!
 
jwhc said:
Very nice find AdrianM :) glad to hear the collection is growing :)

Cheers
Joe
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Thanks buddy. I did a fair amount of buying and selling over the last year. Didn't make any money, just sorting through what I really want to keep. It's a great hobby. I enjoy the people and trying to buy local much more than the EE. Cheaper too!
 
AdrianM said:
Thanks buddy. I did a fair amount of buying and selling over the last year. Didn't make any money, just sorting through what I really want to keep. It's a great hobby. I enjoy the people and trying to buy local much more than the EE. Cheaper too!
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Hey Adrian,
I'm in Enfield, and would like to take my Enfield out of Enfield and go shooting, where do you go, North Mountain club? Wish I had maed it to Great Village, would have liked to look at the No 4 you mentioned. This stuff is addictive!
Cheers, Vincent
 
vinver said:
Hey Adrian,
I'm in Enfield, and would like to take my Enfield out of Enfield and go shooting, where do you go, North Mountain club? Wish I had maed it to Great Village, would have liked to look at the No 4 you mentioned. This stuff is addictive!
Cheers, Vincent
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PM sent.
 
Rear sight moving freely. It, like the safety, was just gooed up. An overnight soak in solvent and a little gun oil and it's tickety-boo. I also BLO'd the wood. Looks pretty spiffy.

Range report to follow...
 
I fired three rounds through it today. Just a quick test before the family heads to a Christmas get-together.

It was the last of a box of Winchester Super X hunting ammo; 180 gr. I shot at 100 yards. It shot well for a gun that probably hasn't been used in many years. The first shot was 10" high and right on center. The next two shots were about 4" apart; one was 1/2" right and 2" high and the last shot was 4.5" right and 1/4" high. Not bad. I sure like aperture sights now compared to open irons.

The trigger pull has a lot of travel/creep. Is there an easy way to correct this without buggering it? Or should I just get used to it?

This will go whitetail hunting next year.
 
AdrianM said:
I fired three rounds through it today. Just a quick test before the family heads to a Christmas get-together.

It was the last of a box of Winchester Super X hunting ammo; 180 gr. I shot at 100 yards. It shot well for a gun that probably hasn't been used in many years. The first shot was 10" high and right on center. The next two shots were about 4" apart; one was 1/2" right and 2" high and the last shot was 4.5" right and 1/4" high. Not bad. I sure like aperture sights now compared to open irons.

The trigger pull has a lot of travel/creep. Is there an easy way to correct this without buggering it? Or should I just get used to it?

This will go whitetail hunting next year.
Click to expand...

if your very careful you can get a spare set of trigger parts from a sporter and stone them to smooth out the trigger, also keep in mind its a 2 stage trigger, long pull then more pressure and a quick break
 
Mines is smooth, it's just the length of pull is very long in the first stage.

Thanks for the tip, that is a good idea. Next show I go to a gunshow, I'll likely buy some trigger parts and have some fun tinkering.
 
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