National Rifle Factory SMLE

[kjohn]

I scored a "sporterized" old No.1 at the Regina show on Saturday. No manufacturer name on the wrist socket. Hmmmm. Checked on the left side of the cocking knob, there it was - NRF.

Sadly butchered and dirty, the old girl looked to have nice rifling. It started off as a No.1 MkIII, w/cut-off, then switched to Mk.III* somewhere along the line, then back to Mk.III with the * cancelled. **See edit**

NRF made about 50,000 rifles (not sure if complete or partial build) in 1918, the stopped when the war ended. No, not rare, but interesting.

No pics. I am going to give it a good cleaning and give it a session at the shooting bench, just because.

Edit: As per 5th Batt's post, the rifle started out as a MkIII*, then was switched to a MkIII.

 

[bearhunter]

Kjohn, I wish I could remember where I read that many NFR "receivers" were sold to companies that produced commercial sporting rifles on them. Is it possible your, rifle, without other markings could have been built on one of those actions??? Is there a makers marking on the barrel???

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[superbee]

I would say NRF SMLE's are quite scarce.I have only seen 2-3 in 30 years collecting.Never did find a nice matching unmolested example.I think that only a small percentage of the 50,000 receivers were ever built into complete rifles.

 

[myenfield]

Mine was fiddled with by Alex Martin for target shooting a few years ago. I have had this rifle for a long time and shot several matches with it. Lots of fun and very accurate, but I still haven't decided if I would have preferred it had been left alone or not.

 

[5THBATT]

I scored a "sporterized" old No.1 at the Regina show on Saturday. No manufacturer name on the wrist socket. Hmmmm. Checked on the left side of the cocking knob, there it was - NRF.

Sadly butchered and dirty, the old girl looked to have nice rifling. It started off as a No.1 MkIII, w/cut-off, then switched to Mk.III* somewhere along the line, then back to Mk.III with the * cancelled.

NRF made about 50,000 rifles (not sure if complete or partial build) in 1918, the stopped when the war ended. No, not rare, but interesting.

No pics. I am going to give it a good cleaning and give it a session at the shooting bench, just because.

The NRF did not start out as a MkIII, it started out as a MkIII* & like a quite a few other MkIII*s sometime after WW1 it was converted to a MkIII by having the cutoff slot added & the * struck though

 

[1stmotors]

NRF was post SSA ( Standard Small Arms) I believe. I have had two examples of SSA, currently one in my collection