Parker hale m82-m87-C3-C3A1 Rifles

[Lee Enfield]

I have a couple Parker Hale 1200 TX - one is a repeater with a barrel stamped for 1969 Palma Match - the other is a single shot rifle with two action screws - I see in 1976/77 PH Catalogue that they introduce a "Mark III" with three action screws and single shot (at least Mauser version single shot magazine). When I first researched, I was told that ALL Canadian military owned C3 went back to Parker Hale in England and were "upgraded" into C3A1 rifles - although some C3 rifles apparently surfaced in a Central America country - is likely that Parker Hale simply sold the things and sent Canadians whatever. The upshot is, I was told by a CGN guy that any rifle claimed to be a Canadian Military C3 sniper rifle needed really good provenance, since none should exist for past 30 years or more.

The 1200TX CDN (ie, C3) were sent back to PArker-Hale from about 1992 thru 1995ish.

PH inspected, refinished restocked as necessary and sold them to dealers as 1200TX and M82 rifles.

Plenty of C3 range serial numbers have been for sale in Europe in the past 10 years or so.

IIRC There are about 150 rifles listed in the PH internal register as "from Canada"...

as an example:
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=78210

Top rifle is serial R-30120 which I got told is listed in Parker-Hale books as

R30120 SOLD TO MR T. HALLAM 5/11/1996 FROM CANADA AS M82'S ORIGINALLY
T. Hallam means Charnwood Ordnance, for what I've been told. Note the rifle also has the rifle serial stamped on bottom of the pistol grip. I also have the handstop and bipod for it (plus open sights), but the screw head of the handstop seems to have been messed with a bit, so have to fix that first. For what I was able to understand is that this rifle therefore is one of the former Canadian M82 sniper rifles, hence if someone has a lead on a Kahles ZF69 from the Canadian contract with the correct scope rings for this rifle...



Bottom rifle is serial R-33458, listed in Parker-Hale books as

M82 ENTRY 609 and sold to a Mr T HALLAM of Canada

on the 5/11/1996 [/end]

 

[Potashminer]

The 1200TX CDN (ie, C3) were sent back to PArker-Hale from about 1992 thru 1995ish.

PH inspected, refinished restocked as necessary and sold them to dealers as 1200TX and M82 rifles.

Plenty of C3 range serial numbers have been for sale in Europe in the past 10 years or so.

IIRC There are about 150 rifles listed in the PH internal register as "from Canada"...

as an example:
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=78210

Hunh! I was told that all Parker Hale corporate records were burned when the outfit was bought by Gibbs - I did not know there were "Parker Hale books" still around. A great post - thank you!

 

[Lee Enfield]

Hunh! I was told that all Parker Hale corporate records were burned when the outfit was bought by Gibbs - I did not know there were "Parker Hale books" still around. A great post - thank you!

The documents remaining are a mix of a very few documents rescued from the fire and the personal records of 3 of the PH gunmakers, mostly listing the guns they personally built.
https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=47454
"ie,

00245F - Hand built and assembled 4th March 1988 by Bill Smallwood Parker Hale Factory fitted with a Schmidt & Bender sight 12x42
Trigger adjusted for single pull 2 and 1/4Ibs.
17.7mm Grouping of 10 rounds at 100 yards
Fitted with NATO Green Furniture
Issued to the Sri Lankan Royal Air Force[/end]