No 4 MK I Degreasing/Degriming?

[sailor723]

So, I bought this Lee Enfield recently from Corwin Arms. The rifle arrived today and it is pretty greasy/dirty.....sort of like old dust,dirt and grit stuck to a thin coat of partly dried up grease. The wood is pretty sticky too. I am a newb to this as all my other milsurps (SKS, K31, LE No 5) were either bought from the EE or from dealers who had stripped,cleaned and oiled them before putting them up for sale. In any event they were clean and ready to go right out of the box when I got them. I now know I should have asked more questions about condition before jumping on this rifle ( I passed on his Mauser 48's because the description said "coated in cosmoline") but they were going fast and I guess I got caught up in the excitement. Entirely my fault but now I'm stuck with this gun and kind of regretting the purchase.

I'd be grateful for any tips about cleaning the gunk off the gun. How about getting the wood "unsticky"? Does the wood need to come off? I don't really have a real shop to work in so whatever I do can't make too much of a mess or be toxic. Also, my wife has asthma so strong smelling solvents are basement use only.

Anyway, any tips would be appreciated.

BTW the dried grease/dirt isn't readily apparent in the photos. It's mostly in the action, on the bolt, around the sights, on the mag etc

 

[BlackVoid]

Heat gun and lots of shop/paper towels. I also use the thermo glove for safety reasons.

It will stink, so basement.

You will have to disassemble it too. Not sure about enfields, but SKSs have cosmo inside the stock.

 

[mctrigger]

Mineral spirits help too. Used that on shop towels and heat gun. I disassembled it all first. After i got the grease and grime off I applied Lindseed oil with a bit of turipinine. The next few weeks just Lindseed oil. The old no.1 looks top
Notch now.

 

[rgg_7]

As already suggested strip down the rifle. Use WD40, a toothbrush and plenty of paper towel to clean up the metal. Wipe down the wood with lacquer thinner. Hand rub the stock with BLO and a cloth till dry to the touch. Repeat until you get the desired finish. Reassemble. Good to go! Ron

 

[sailor723]

Kind of what I was afraid of.....sounds like a messy PITA to me.

I'm beginning to think the easiest route will be to put it in the safe as is and wait for it to appreciate enough to recover the purchase price,HST etc.

Oh well, you live and you learn. I think I'll stick with operational, ready to use guns EE from now on.

 

[pcvando]

I don't mean to be negative here in any way, but if you are going to get into the milsurp rifles, heck, any firearms at all... you need to get familiar with using cleaning solvents, grease, oil etc, and pull throughs, disassembling rifles too if shooting corrosive ammo etc.

Watch some YouTube videos, they can be helpful. A wipe down with gun oil will do, remove the bolt, wipe down, pull through the bore and inspect after to make sure it's clean and free of debree.

Get yourself a tool kit with cleaning supplies, some tools, screw drivers and rags. Make a little kit.

Cleaning and maintenance is just as much part of the hobby as shooting or collecting itself. It comes with the sport.

Cheers

 

[Chas59]

Kind of what I was afraid of.....sounds like a messy PITA to me.

I'm beginning to think the easiest route will be to put it in the safe as is and wait for it to appreciate enough to recover the purchase price,HST etc.

Oh well, you live and you learn. I think I'll stick with operational, ready to use guns EE from now on.

Part of the fun of collecting milsurps, I have cleaned many SKS's, Mosins, Enfields, Mausers of different stripes, and have enjoyed them all. It's great when you get them all cleaned up and useable again, the history is amazing. They are also fun to shoot as they have character and are quite different than modern arms. I have bought a few Enfields from Corwin-Arms and they have been great (once tidied up) they shoot very well, don't give up so easy with the clean up, you tube is your friend, it's really not that bad.

 

[milsurpo]

sailor: I've cleaned many and never use anything but kerosene and linseed oil. Use a wallpaper dipping trough (cost nothing) with a few inches of kerosene to dip the receiver/ barrel with butt still attached. Just wipe the wood with rags soaked in raw linseed oil and the grease will be removed with no damage to the wood. If there's some real tough gunk on the wood use kerosene on it. Kerosene is not terribly volatile and fairly safe to use as a cleaner. Latest one I cleaned was a No.4 Mk 2 that had just come out of its wrapper and was fully packed with grease. With kerosene and linseed oil had it fully cleaned in less than an hour.

milsurpo

 

[sailor723]

I don't mean to be negative here in any way, but if you are going to get into the milsurp rifles, heck, any firearms at all... you need to get familiar with using cleaning solvents, grease, oil etc, and pull throughs, disassembling rifles too if shooting corrosive ammo etc.

Watch some YouTube videos, they can be helpful. A wipe down with gun oil will do, remove the bolt, wipe down, pull through the bore and inspect after to make sure it's clean and free of debree.

Get yourself a tool kit with cleaning supplies, some tools, screw drivers and rags. Make a little kit.

Cleaning and maintenance is just as much part of the hobby as shooting or collecting itself. It comes with the sport.

Cheers

Just to be clear, I field strip and clean all my guns after every outing. I have a pretty good supply of various cleaners (G96, Hoppes, Bore Venom), cleaning rods, jags, brushes, bore snakes, lubes etc etc as well as a good set of gunsmithing srcewdrivers to take the cylinders off my revolvers without damaging the screws. While I don't particularly enjoy doing it, it always gets done.

I'm just saying that this task seems a fair bit beyond simple cleaning and more messy than something I'm really keen to do. I know many people enjoy tinkering and working on their guns but that's not my cup of tea.

I now realize that when you buy a milsurp from a dealer as opposed to on the EE having them covered in this crap is pretty normal. My only previous experience in buying from a dealer was a so called "super grade" SKS from Bulls Eye London. It arrived cleaned, oiled and ready to go. I understand now that this was the exception to the norm. That's fine and I'll be better informed next time. In the meantime I have a nice Long Branch tucked away safely in it's protective grease and hopefully appreciating. I just won't handle it much as I already got black grease on my pants after unpacking it

 

[pcvando]

Just to be clear, I field strip and clean all my guns after every outing. I have a pretty good supply of various cleaners (G96, Hoppes, Bore Venom), cleaning rods, jags, brushes, bore snakes, lubes etc etc as well as a good set of gunsmithing srcewdrivers to take the cylinders off my revolvers without damaging the screws. While I don't particularly enjoy doing it, it always gets done.

I'm just saying that this task seems a fair bit beyond simple cleaning and more messy than something I'm really keen to do. I know many people enjoy tinkering and working on their guns but that's not my cup of tea.

I now realize that when you buy a milsurp from a dealer as opposed to on the EE having them covered in this crap is pretty standard. That's fine and I'll be better informed next time.

Ah ok, then just wipe the stock and metal parts down with oil, clean the bore, wipe wood clean with cloth.

Enjoy. Looks like you got a nice one! Think about it, it's fresh! Straight from the arsenal that packed it away post war. Nobody messed with it, and you will be the first person to fire it since possibly ww2!

Now if that's not cool, idk what is

 

[sailor723]

Ah ok, then just wipe the stock and metal parts down with oil, clean the bore, wipe wood clean with cloth.

Enjoy. Looks like you got a nice one! Think about it, it's fresh! Straight from the arsenal that packed it away post war. Nobody messed with it, and you will be the first person to fire it since possibly ww2!

Now if that's not cool, idk what is

Wiping with gun oil will take all that sticky crap off? Wouldn't that just add to the mess? As to the wood, I'm not sure I could even wipe it with a cloth. It's so tacky I think a cloth would stick to it.

 

[ricohman]

Just to be clear, I field strip and clean all my guns after every outing. I have a pretty good supply of various cleaners (G96, Hoppes, Bore Venom), cleaning rods, jags, brushes, bore snakes, lubes etc etc as well as a good set of gunsmithing srcewdrivers to take the cylinders off my revolvers without damaging the screws. While I don't particularly enjoy doing it, it always gets done.

I'm just saying that this task seems a fair bit beyond simple cleaning and more messy than something I'm really keen to do. I know many people enjoy tinkering and working on their guns but that's not my cup of tea.

I now realize that when you buy a milsurp from a dealer as opposed to on the EE having them covered in this crap is pretty normal. My only previous experience in buying from a dealer was a so called "super grade" SKS from Bulls Eye London. It arrived cleaned, oiled and ready to go. I understand now that this was the exception to the norm. That's fine and I'll be better informed next time. In the meantime I have a nice Long Branch tucked away safely in it's protective grease and hopefully appreciating. I just won't handle it much as I already got black grease on my pants after unpacking it

Buying on EE does not guarantee anything as far as a proper cleaning goes with milsurps. I've bought guns that all the previous owner did was wipe them off and shoot them!

 

[Robbs]

I'm beginning to think the easiest route will be to put it in the safe as is and wait for it to appreciate enough to recover the purchase price,HST etc.

It may take a long while. If you bought from Corwin you paid extreme top dollar. Lots of cosmoline is nice on a minty rifle, but the Corwin Lee Enfields are not minty examples.

 

[sailor723]

It may take a long while. If you bought from Corwin you paid extreme top dollar. Lots of cosmoline is nice on a minty rifle, but the Corwin Lee Enfields are not minty examples.

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder about that. The way they sold so quickly in almost a feeding frenzy made me think they were really special. Now that I have mine I'm not so sure.

 

[pcvando]

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder about that. The way they sold so quickly in almost a feeding frenzy made me think they were really special. Now that I have mine I'm not so sure.

They are special rifles, how often do "from-arsenal" rifles of any type come up, let alone Long Branch Canadian used Lee Enfields?... not often.

The VAST majority of Enfields in Canada are ex-sporter rifles, and rebuilds. Matching original examples (believe it or not) are actually not the norm.

What you have is an excellent war time used Enfield, then post war given to a NATO ally as war aid, then surplussed off and brought back to Canada by cowrin arms. If only these rifles could talk. They aren't you average Lee Enfield.

As for price, I think they were fairly priced. Long Branches go up and down, I remember when they were flying off the EE at $1500 any day no problem. They have come down since then, but do not worry, they will go back up. It is a great rifle, and part of this great countries history!

As for your question about the oil.... yes, use oil and it will remove the old oil, seems counter intuitive right? but it works.

Wipe it down with oil, then wipe the stock clean of the new oil with a cloth rag. Wipe firmly and rigorously if needed (sort of like a mini buff) this will then remove the oil, and will have cleaned the stock leaving it feeling nice. (Wipe to desired feeling.)

Then the metal, wipe down with oil, then wipe with clean rag. This should coat it nicely and protect it from rust etc.

 

[pcvando]

Wiping with gun oil will take all that sticky crap off? Wouldn't that just add to the mess? As to the wood, I'm not sure I could even wipe it with a cloth. It's so tacky I think a cloth would stick to it.

And this is why we put oil on the old oil... it will loosen it up, and make it easy to wipe off. Then follow instructions in my above post

 

[pcvando]

Your rifle also has a cool arsenal hang tag on the stock... take it off and preserve it in a zip-lock bag or something. Keep it with the rifle for when you sell it.

 

[purple]

Plan to spend about an hour to get a greasy No4 cleaned up. Here's how.

1. Strip the action and remove the forestock and handguards.

2. Get some mineral spirits, a toothbrush, a pan, some rags, raw linseed oil and paper towelling and take the rifle outside.

3. Scrub the metal parts to remove grease and crud, wipe with paper towelling and set aside to dry.

4. Wipe the wood with a rag and linseed oil. If this doesn't remove the surface crud, use another rag moistened with mineral spirits.

5. When dry give all internal/external metal parts a light coat of oil. Rub the wood again with linseed and wipe the oil from the surface of the wood. You don't want any accumulated linseed drying on the surface of the wood where it will become tacky.

6. Re-assemble the rifle and properly dispose of all cleaning materials, especially the linseed soaked rags.

Such are the burdens, tasks and joys of all dedicated MILSURP owners. If you aren't willing to tackle this you might consider getting into another category of firearms.

 

[D-BOMB]

" I passed on his Mauser 48's because the description said "coated in cosmoline"...you, sir, need to hang your head in shame. Cosmoline is life!

 

[stencollector]

It may take a long while. If you bought from Corwin you paid extreme top dollar. Lots of cosmoline is nice on a minty rifle, but the Corwin Lee Enfields are not minty examples.

From the few examples of the Corwin Enfields I have seen, I have to agree 100%. The ones I saw were Factory Through Repairs, done by Canadian Arsenals around 1960. Your rifle shows it has low cut wood. Normally that is only found on a 41 or earlier 42 rifle. Yet on the Corwin site, there was even a 1950 dated rifle with low cut wood. One would certainly expect a low cut wood rifle to have the early machined rear site, yet yours shows the L site typical of mid war production. I have noted the Cdn Arsenals acceptance stamp on the forestock as well as the original C/l\ marks. Hard to tell by your photos, but it also looks like you have one machined band, and one fabricated band.

The sure giveaway if it's a rebuild will be on the wrist. If there is a little letter and 1, 2 or 3 numbers stamped somewhere below the serial number on the left side of the wrist, that seems to be an indication the rifle was FR in Canada. The point behind the FTR was to make a serviceable rifle, and not to be correct as to the various features supplied to the rifle.

Personally I thought the rifles were priced towards the top of the market. Had a FTR rifle been laying on a table at a gunshow, I think it will likely have been visiting many, many gunshows before it sold at around the $1100 price point, which is what a Corwin rifle ended up costing if you were paying HST and hipping.

Your mileage may vary.