Need info on magazine lee enfields

Pick up the parts you need slowly, as you turn them up.

The Barrel is just peachy-keen fine: it has not been cut. This rifle is a fine candidate for eventual full restoration. Length, BTW, is 30.2 inches, bolt-face to muzzle.

A bit of history. England had a military dictatorship once upon a time. General Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, ran it for a fanatical Puritan Parliament. One slightly-excessive act of theirs was removing the KING'S head, which did not make them very popular with a lot of people. This all changed with the Restoration in 1660, when Charles II returned from exile. Since then, the Army has been kept permanently broke, except for when they have been really needed. Add to this the fact that Europe in the late 19th Century was arming itself to the teeth, and the setting-up and arming of LOCAL Militia units (often called Territorials) became SOCIALLY POPULAR. So you had units with fancy uniforms in every little town..... and the Army could not afford to give them rifles. So they bought their own. Your is what remains of a fine example: made by BSA, sold after tuning by A.G. Parker, likely taken into Service officially during the Second Boer War (when a lot of local units went to South Africa) or World War One (when nearly ALL of them ended up in France), surplussed some time after that was over.

You will need the Forestock complete, an Aperture Sight for the Volley Sight system, spacer for the Aperture Arm, Upper Handguard, Barrel Band and Nosecap (which you have). Steve (Tinman204) has mentioned that it is possible, although fiddly, to fake the Upper Handguard from one from an SMLE.

It will take time and a bit of money, but you will end up with an historically significant centrepiece for a collection.... and a damfine old range rifle.

And if the Zulus or the Boers ever get snarky again, you are READY.

I have TWO of these myself. On is a BSA commercial LM Mark II, marked (as standard for this model only) "Lee-Speed Patents". The other is a former BSA LMII but it went through Parker's shop about 1920 and was treated to a 23-inch Parker barrel, modified original wood, gold front sight.... and a new seril number: 0019. For 40 bucks, I'm happy with it! Next Summer is resto time on that one.

You are a Very Lucky Guy!

Hope this helps.
 
OP

Have fun with the restoration its a labour of love so enjoy.

Smellie surprisingly in 2002 Cromwell was No. 10 on the list of 100 Greatest Britons that must have annoyed the Irish a wee bit
 
Not to highjack your post OP but have a look at my own BSA MLE sporter.

It's 99% identical to yours!! I lucked out with this one to thanks to a good friend (Smellie) stumbling across it. It REALLY shoots, I mean Really!!

86F42737-6B88-425B-9F2E-F832817DDD79-1805-000005C391269B4F.jpg


76F8F73A-F5BA-400B-956C-06A167A12C26-1805-000005C41B4603C4.jpg


Heres a picture for reference of the volley sight aperture that you're missing.
B5F396E4-F307-4DDE-A0F3-E8D4081E2F5C-1805-000005C3C09F15BB.jpg
 
I suggest you carefully remove the woodwork - forend first - then give the barreled action the Easy Off treatment. You'll be amazed how it will clean up. With some good rubber gloves on and eye protection of course. Run it under very hot water to soften the grease and dirt, spray on the Easy Off, let sit for 15 minutes then come back with the old toothbrushes and bottle bottle brushes and scrub all the crap off. I like to run a bore brush through them at that point too. All kinds of purple (copper fouling) comes out. This is also when you get the extra fine steel wool and remove that rust speckling, rubbing no harder than you have to and avoiding corners as much as possible. When you've brushed out everywhere you can, wash off in very hot water, blow off with compressed air if available. If no air, wipe down with a clean rag or paper towel, then dry by playing a propane torch over it. Watch for the evaporation of the moisture and keep the torch moving. Stay away from small or thin parts with the torch, except of a quick pass or two. Once dry immediately spray down with whatever oil or treatment you prefer, wipe down and reassemble when cool.

I would brush the dirt off the stock recesses, and wipe down with some Linseed oil, but other than that, do nothing. Re-apply the oil every month or so, but only light coats. The oil will soften some of the dirt etc. and that will wipe off over time. Don't strip or steel wool the stock, you will ruin the patina.

My standard spiel for these situations.;)

One caveat however: some parts such as the cocking piece, magazine cutoff, long range sight etc. were originally "oil blacked" then I believe, lacquered. You might want to test the effect of the Easy Off on a small, inconspicuous area first to see how if it affects the finish on those parts. It has no negative effect on the rest of the metal work in my experience.
 
smellie said:
Remember that the Cutoff is a SPRING. Springs do not respond well to heat.

Careful with Springs, always.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Yes, one or two seconds is more than enough to get such a thin piece hot enough. On the larger parts watch for the "mist" on the metal around the flame, when it evaporates it's hot enough, move to another area.

Smellie we're up too late!;)
 
I note the EFD marking on the Bolt Head of this rifle. This is from the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, which is a long way from Birmingham by English standards.

Here, of course, it's the distance between gun shows!

Likely this part, and the Magazine, were swapped-in by an Armourer while the Rifle was doing its Service in the Great War.

I think if I owned the Rifle, I would leave these parts installed. They are a part of its Service career.

As well...... 2 less parts to buy!

Save the $$$ and get the poor thing a Dust Cover! You are very lucky: many of these rifles had the lugs for the Dust Cover ground off. Yours are fine.

And while I'm out of my Ebenezer Scrooge ("Bah! Humbug!!") mood, "A Merry Christmas to All!"

(I can say that: my G-G-Uncle wrote him!)
 
Lots pick-at-chers of the Rifle up already.

Problem with photos of the Sight is that you have to FIND on before you can photograph it!

"If wishes were horses, Beggars would ride......" and I don't have one to photograph!
 
This is the easiest one for general use, if you can find one. Have to be careful not a knock it around though.

DSCF6736.JPG
 
update,
through my sister who lives in the states, I managed to acquire a full set of lee metford bands and the proper trigger guard with swivel so I now have all my barrel bands
 
Don't see any images on this thread of a full-wood Magazine Lee-Enfield .... looks like this:

MLE_sepia_med_zps7f47fc87.jpg


MLE_composite.jpg


Royal Canadian Regiment buglers in South Africa during the Second Anglo-Boer War, with Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles -

2RCR_buglers2.jpg
 
yeah I got lucky, pretty much all my metal bits are accounted for, I paid out the ass for them, but hey where am I going to find them again for a rifle that's over 100 years old. I've been trying to find a sportered stock for my 1905 ross mk 2 for 2 years and turned up 2 but as quickly as I found them they were gone, so this time I jumped on the parts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom