Longbranch C No7 with Ishapore screw?

louthepou said:
Hi folks, double checking, I don't think an original C No7 would ever have been assembled with an Ishapore screw?

Lou
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Depends on which nation had it in service. If the Indians had it, yes. I've never seen an Indian No7, but that doesn't mean they didn't have them.

The Brits used the screw as a repair, when the forstocks cracked and it was considered to be acceptable.
 
Hello Gents. The Ishy screw was never applied to any Canadian service rifle in Canada. Period. C No.7 .22s were never shipped out of
the country by any government source. If you have an Ishy screw in your C No. 7 it was not put there in the factory or in any armourers shop in
Canada. As wheaty says its a replacement stock. In fact in all of the hundreds of C No.7 fores I have examined they were all quality walnut and often black walnut. Simply the finest .22 service rifle ever made considering their likeness to the full .303 No.4. JOHN
 
If an ad for a No7 rifle doesn't include a close-up of the markings on the receiver, to include serial number (or where the serial number would be on the butt socket), the windage dial spring & screw, and the muzzle, you can pretty much guarantee that it's a parts gun, no matter the price range.

The Ishy screw is just the cherry on top, in this case.

Bradley
 
Several years ago a number of canadian made No. 4 forestock came back from India with the Ishapore screw. Could be that rifle was rebuilt with some of that wood.
 
Did some extensive research on the "Ishy" screw a while ago. There is a tendency to think that all screws are Indian installed. This is not so as the Brits also did them (though a lot more neatly) and also installed dowels to take care of the same stock spilttting issue which did not limit itself to just the Indian subcontinent.
 
55recce said:
Did some extensive research on the "Ishy" screw a while ago. There is a tendency to think that all screws are Indian installed. This is not so as the Brits also did them (though a lot more neatly) and also installed dowels to take care of the same stock spilttting issue which did not limit itself to just the Indian subcontinent.
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It would be interesting to actually see an example of a non-Indian screw repair. I've seen guys claim it was used by the British but never with an example. The Indians used them as a preventative measure, not just as a repair for already cracked forends. In British service I would have thought that the "repair" for a cracked forend would have typically been to grab a new one off the shelf? A lot of what we know about the screw comes from a well known post WW2 armourer who advocates replacing Ishapore screws with wooden dowels for purely aesthetic reasons. Personally I think the screw should have been installed on all Lee Enfields. I've had several rifles which had been shot extensively with the draws area completely ruined but whose forends were saved by the screw. I've also installed screws in badly damaged forends I was attempting to repair and the biggest problem was finding a correct appearing slotted woodscrew. I actually had to order a bag of them from the US.

milsurpo
 
wheaty said:
The ONLY way to tell if it is a factory original is if it does NOT have the flat on the left side of the butt socket..
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Even that is not 100%. I bought a 1953 dated Cno7 that was an obvious put-together, and there never was a serial number applied to the wrist. So it would appear that there may have been a very small amount of un-numbered receivers in supply mixed in with the 99.9% that were scrubbed.

But the serial area on a scrubbed receiver is the normal give-away of a non-factory rifle. Even if the area is re-profiled and serialized in the correct font and serial range, a high macro photo will let you see the surface texture. There is a big difference between a buffed wrist and an original wrist.
 
Milsurpo, I believe the "Book of the Lee Enfield" by Skenerton has some pics of both British and Indian rifles with screws.

I believe the Brits used it as a ''temporary'' repair, until a new fore end could be sourced for replacement.

IMHO, as others have mentioned, it's actually an improvement.
 
Hi Purple. I believe the standard in manufacturing for the Indian SMLE was with the Ishy screw. Very hot climate combined with heavy
rains combined with discharge concussion equals split fores. Also that rangoon oil that one could find slopped on everything probably didn't
help much. It may have been good for preservation but if anyone who has ever had wood soaking with that stuff will tell you it leaks , and leaks, and more leaks so it not just permeated the wood but any kind of heat it would make it pour out. JOHN
 
Remember that the Brits still had an empire back in Lee Enfield days so deployed many rifles to hot and humid locations. Not just Indian troops in India had the stock cracking issue....
 
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