Need help finding a magazine! Photo's added post 7

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Hello all,
I am reaching out to the community looking for help finding a magazine. I have recently acquired a Longbranch Lee Enfield N04 Mk1* that has been converted to 7.62 and am looking for a magazine to fit it. Are they really that hard to find or is my Google-fu lacking? Thanks for any and all help!
 
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Promag made a 7.62 mag. I think they are out of production. You see them at gunshows ever now and again.
 
I found one years ago and paid thru the nose for it. I sold it with the gun. Try a WTB in the milsurp exchange EE parts form. You might get lucky.
 
You are looking for an Enfield or Stirling 7.62 magazine
Stirling magazine requires a few additional parts to work properly
Both magazines are close to 1/3 of the price of the gun
 
Yes. The rifles were intended for use in target shooting competition, all slow fire prone. The .303 magazine was left in place, more as a loading platform than anything else. It was not used as a magazine.
If you look around, you will find a post I made quoting the 1964 DCRA Marksman publication which detailed bedding experiments done to try to maximize accuracy from these converted rifles.
 
Thanks tiriaq!
When I received the firearm from the old gentleman that owned it previously, it came with a Lee Enfield .22 stamped magazine that had been converted back to a standard 303 follower and spring in it. Could this magazine be original to the gun from the time of conversion?

 
I am not an expert in these, but so far your pictures don't appear to show any marks related to a DCRA "conversion". I believe the CA stamped 7.62 barrels were relatively readily available (?), not exclusively to the DCRA. So, without more, I am thinking your rifle could as well have simply had a 7.62 barrel screwed on by somebody. The bolt head and ejector should be different, and differently marked, and that rear sight - not sure I recognize it - perhaps a Parker Hale #4??

All said, without a "matching" serial number on the bottom of the magazine, I have no idea how to verify that it came originally with the rifle. Your receiver says 1943, and I do not believe Long Branch was marking magazines during WWII, but unit armourers were.

I believe you might want to inspect your wood pieces for markings - they may or may not have gone together, as well as any markings on the various stock fittings. If it was a war issued rifle, all could have been swapped out at some point, but all looks pretty nice in the pictures that you have posted.
 
There is the CA mark with 7.62 near the muzzle. The conversion serial should be on the right side of the receiver ring. I don't know that the Canadian Arsenals used a 7.62 extractor. The conversions were proofed, of course. The bolt would have been marked when converted at CAL.
The rear sight is a Mk. I service sight with a windage attachment. Note that the front sight has been replaced with a tunnel foresight which would take different sized apertures. The left side of the receiver ring has a BNP mark, so the rifle was in the UK at one time.
When these rifles were being used in competition, some were purchased on the surplus market; or, they could be purchased direct from a Central Ordnance Depot (new, $45). Some conversions were issue rifles held by units and used by their teams. Some were real bitsers; lots of parts were available. If you take it apart, you may well find evidence of bedding work being done.
I suspect that this rifle was purchased on the surplus market, and then set up for target shooting. Does the bolt serial match the receiver?
The magazine is just what the owner had. It isn't original to the rifle.
The DCRA has the records of all competitions. If the old gentleman shot at Connaught, it would be possible to look up his record. See how he did with the rifle.
 
For tiriaq - don't mean to disrupt this thread, but for my information - the "CA 7.62" mark near the muzzle - is that one of the marks of a CAL conversion? Were such barrels available to others?

And, I was mistaken about the rear sight - picture below of a Parker Hale #4 - the windage knob is on the other side to OP's picture:

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Certainly a Canadian Arsenals barrel. Ganderite would be the one to ask if CAL 7.62 barrels were readily available as detached barrels.
 
Just doing some further reading - apparently anyone belonging to a DCRA affiliated club could send in their own No. 4 and have it converted to 7.62 by CAL (for a fee, of course). Shooters would often mix / match / modify to get the rifle to shoot the best possible. That CAL conversion apparently also involved crack, hardness and proof testing.
 
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Thanks guys!
The bolt does serial match to the rifle, but i am not seeing any markings other than the ser # on the receiver and the left side markings pictured previously. No serial number on right side and no visible markings on the bolt.
 
If the bolt and receiver do not have CAL 7.62 conversion marks, then it is safe to assume that the CA barrel was not installed at Long Branch. When and by whom is anyone's guess.
There is a little conversion unit that attaches to the aperture slide in a service sight to add windage. I think that is what is on the OP's rifle. If I remember, I'll dig one out tomorrow and take a photo.
The Model 4 sight on Postashminer's rifle is a less common sight than the PH5C or AJP Twin Zero.
 
MAGS_1RED.JPG


Those are the 3 7.62 mags for Enfields. 2A, Sterling conversion and Enforcer.
 
Op, there is a fella in Regina who knows waaaay more about these than I do. Google Enfield Restorations and talk to Stewie. He’s an older British fella and if he can’t help you, I’m not sure anyone else in Canada could either.....

Cheers
 
Maybe this thread can be moved to the Milsurps section, where a lot of knowledgeable folks can chime in.

As for the 7.62 conversion No.4s - easiest thing to do will be finding a No.4 magazine. It won't feed from the magazine (the 7.62 that is) but you use it as a single shot rifle; and the magazine acts as a loading platform.
 
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