No 4 MK I Degreasing/Degriming?

stencollector said:
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.
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This is useful info on rifles which were FR in Canada. I've got 2 of them, both returns from India. One is an LB43 with the rebuild markings "RLB 12/46" stamped on the left side below the charger guide. It also has the characters "C3C" stamped on the butt socket below the s/n as well as a star in 2 places and a letter "w" on the receiver ring. The other is an LB45 with the characters "C4" stamped below the s/n. Both have the B blue finish.
 
purple said:
This is useful info on rifles which were FR in Canada. I've got 2 of them, both returns from India. One is an LB43 with the rebuild markings "RLB 12/46" stamped on the left side below the charger guide. It also has the characters "C3C" stamped on the butt socket below the s/n as well as a star in 2 places and a letter "w" on the receiver ring. The other is an LB45 with the characters "C4" stamped below the s/n. Both have the B blue finish.
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I can't be certain on the true meaning of the alpha-numeric stamp, but I can tell you this: I only find them on ex-cdn used stens that were refinished to the grey park. Usually on the magwell, sometimes on the trigger housing. I have never seen the numbers on a ex-Cdn used sten that was not refinished into the grey colour. Sometimes the stens were British made, usually they were Cdn made. On disassembly, I have also found that many of them appeared to have been dropped into the re-finishing bath still assembled. Underneath the magwell, or on the magwell underneath the removable parts, the finish will still be the original blue or black.

So take that description for what it is: my observation only. Whether the little codes are a batch number, a work order number, or an inspector number I do not know. And how the same style numbers apply to the Cdn Enfields, I am only guessing.

On the stens, the marking will be a single letter followed by one, two or three digits.
 
Hey OP - like PCVando said, learning to break down and clean is pretty much standard fair for milsurps and old rifles. Myself, I enjoy it.

 
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