Picked up an odd-ball Enfield Sporter

Killer Kanuck

Killer Kanuck

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
79   0   0
Location
PEI
I picked this up this afternoon, thinking it would be a good candidate to turn into a classic "Lee Speed" type sporter. It's dated 1899 and marked "LE I* I" (Lee Enfield No1 Mk1?). The barrel is marked BSA. The pictures below were taken before I used some oil, extra fine steel wool and elbow grease to clean off most of the surface rust. After I did that I got a surprise - in front of the rear sight, it's marked "Superior Nickel Steel". So, what I had assumed to be a cut and modified (sights) military barrel, looks to be a BSA commercial barrel. The stock has obviously been heavily modified in the last 110+ years. But what the hell did I buy? :confused:


007234.JPG


008203.JPG


010201.JPG


012148.JPG


011162.JPG
 
You don't have to turn this one into anything, friend; that's pretty much what it is.

"LEE-SPEED PATENTS" was marked on COMMERCIAL Lee-METFORD Mark II rifles, including vast numbers for various Yeomanries, Militias, Territorials, Volunteers, Fencibles and so forth They were made as paramilitary rifles, military rifles and as sporters. Following the Great War, they were declared obsolete and so were sold off, largely through the gunmaking Trade.

Once the Trade got their hands on them, anything went, pretty much. I have one here with markings only on the barrel itself; receiver has been scrubbed. On the barrel, though, are very nice things: a tiny little triangle with the words "A.G. PARKER" and "BISLEY WORKS" and their own serial number, which is 0019. Barrel is 23 inches (as opposed to 30.25 original) and the front sight bead is Gold, which the Army NEVER would have paid for. I have a letter from PH on this one; they told me that they would have done it about 1920. Mine, as yours, has remodelled military wood, although mine has been commercialised a bit more than yours (long-ange sights removed and the holes in the fore-end plugged with bits of wood from the chopped fore-arm.

You have a very nice chunk of history, friend. The old girl likely saw service in the Second Boer War and the Great War both.

BTW, rather doubt that your SUPERIOR NICKEL STEEL would have been available much prior to the Great War, so this dates her. Nickel steel was regarded as very much an innovation in the P-'14; it wa not that popular for some times because it was 'sticky' as compared to glass-hard case-hardening.

Any other markings? What about Proofs? Mine is Proofed for the 215-grain bullet and a case length of 2.21" rather than the 2.222" usually seen.

What type of rifling? Original to mine was Metford: 7 grooves segmental, 1 in 10, lefthand. Original rifling for yours should be Enfield: 5 grooves, lands and grooves equal width, 1 turn in 10 inches, lefthand. Mine NOW is Parker's own idea of rifling, which is NOT what the military specified; it is their own barrel. Your barrel is BSA? Your receiver is Enfield: proof that the Trade had their mucky little hands in her guttiwutts.

Nice rifle!:D
.
 
More pics

Post metal cleaning
015132.JPG


016115.JPG


01795.JPG


Top of Barrel (really hard to get a picture of this - the best I could do - says "Superior Nickel Steel")
006275.JPG


Bottom of Barrel
011163.JPG


Barrel shank bottom
010202.JPG


Barrel shank side
007240.JPG


BSA Logo
008220.JPG


Butt socket
014145.JPG
 
Very nice!

And it even has a serial number!

I wonder if any records were saved from BSA when they went down? Or does anyone have any information about serial numbers as opposed to known dates of manufacture?

Cleaned up the way she has, I would be surprised if she didn't have a shootable bore. Nice thing is that she's been in Canada for a long time and VERY likely purchased as a game rifle. Canadian commercial ammunition was noncorrosive/nonmercuric for a LONG time. Reason for this is that RWS was a part of the Dynamite group, which was/is NOBEL. And ICI (Imperial Chemical Industries) was a part of the Nobel effort in England... and they were he parent corporation of CIL (Canadian Industries Limited)..... which bought out the Dominion factory....... so Dominion got the rights to the RWS ROSTFREI primer from CIL who got it from ICI who got it from DAG which owned RWS and I am starting to become confued. But what it boilsdown to is that we had NCNM primers for a considerable period before the US manufacturers had the things. US military refused to use them for a long time, citing reliability problems.... but they were happy enough to have them in ALL their Carbine ammo and in the VCC-45 .30-06 we made for them. US military change-over only came complete in 1954 and we only dumped the MILITARY corrosive/mercuric primer for .303 in 1956/7. But COMMERCIAL ammo was NCNM for a good long time.... and that is what a hunting rifle would have been shooting although, at $2 a box even in the 1930s, it would not have been shoting a great deal. You just could have a clasic moose gun on your hands, now started into her THIRD century in the field.

You are a very lucky man!

Go buy a lottery ticket while you're still hot!

NICE old rifle.
.
 
I still have some more scrubbing to do in the bore, but it looks like it should clean up quite nice (might be one small rough-ish spot about 1/3rd down the barrel - other than that, clean 5 groove rifling). Starting to sound like the best $75 I've spent this year. :D
Now I have to see if I can track down a place that makes a good quality wood sporter stock - something as close to a proper Lee Speed stock as I can find.
 
Smellie, I have read somewhere that BSA pretty much ignores any attempts to find out the history of the firearms it has produced.
 
@ Gibbs505: I had a letter from BSA many years ago which pretty much confirms what you are saying. They WERE bombed during War Two and lost a lot of records and I think that has been their excuse ever since. It would be nice to know if anything was saved and, if so, where is it now. BSAQ today is pretty much a sales org; their gunmaking machinery was sold to India about 40 years ago, the Small Heath motorcycle plant was turned into a parking-lot and so forth. Sic transit gloria mundi.

@ Killer Kanuck: the stock on the rifle RIGHT NOW is its correct stock and is original to the rifle. You don't have to restock this baby at all. She is absolutely correct for a classic 1920 QUALITY sporter using the best barrel which could be made, along with the slickest action ever produced. Gotta just LOVE that flag safety! Quiet and just SO slick! You HAVE the rifle you wanted and, what's more, she's ORIGINAL. Best 75 bucks you have spent in a long while? Oh, yes! Considering what has happened to the Dollar in recent years, that's like buying her off the rack for $2.50 when she was new...... and she would have been about 10 times that price.

Go ahead: gloat! You HAVE something to gloat about, really!

Don't add or change anything. Just continue on the way you are, making the old girl look as good as she looked 90 years ago.

Hope this helps.
.
 
Still haven't fully scrubbed the bore yet (don't know where my 30 cal brushes ended up - have a ton of 45 and 375, but there not much good for this), but looks very promising. Very strong rifling, with only one small area that might have some roughness. Couple jacketed rounds through it should help clean that, right? :D

By the way - anyone know what the "RNB" on the buttplate stands for? Royal Naval Barracks?
 
Killer Kanuck said:
Still haven't fully scrubbed the bore yet (don't know where my 30 cal brushes ended up - have a ton of 45 and 375, but there not much good for this), but looks very promising. Very strong rifling, with only one small area that might have some roughness. Couple jacketed rounds through it should help clean that, right? :D

By the way - anyone know what the "RNB" on the buttplate stands for? Royal Naval Barracks?
Click to expand...

Actually, a few jacketed bullets are just the trick. I have seen some pretty horrible looking bores shoot perfectly fine. I have also seen some pretty worn bores shoot surprizingly well. I'm sure if your rifling is strong and mostly smooth, you will have a good shooter.
 
If you want a stab at the BSA serial numbers the records were bought by John Knibb of JP Knibb International Solihull near Brum.
 
Killer Kanuck said:
Still haven't fully scrubbed the bore yet (don't know where my 30 cal brushes ended up - have a ton of 45 and 375, but there not much good for this), but looks very promising. Very strong rifling, with only one small area that might have some roughness. Couple jacketed rounds through it should help clean that, right? :D

By the way - anyone know what the "RNB" on the buttplate stands for? Royal Naval Barracks?
Click to expand...

Crappy Tire carries .30 cal bronze brushes.
 
The Naval Issue rifles would have a large N stamped on the butt socket possibly other side of makers name etc. If its a factory sporter odds are its a bits bin gun so the butt plate could have come from anything.
I have looked but perhaps a list of pre Haldane regiments and independant units may supply the answer.
 
Ok Considered opinion from the Army Rumour Service Historical buffs has come up with this;
"Regardless of the rifle's current configuration, the overwhelmingly likely candidate for RNB + rack number like that is the Royal Navy. There is not even any other recorded regimental marking (e.g. in Skennerton's "Broad arrow" lists) that comes close to the "RN" part other than Rawalpindi arsenal. The rack number without any sub-unit code usually indicates that its a pool rifle from a large military establishment or a school/University. Possibly the butt has come off something else, but the RN was a major user of all models of Long Lee. "

There my research is done, there is no guarantee that the rifle left any formal factory with any of those parts ever fitted so its a dont know in short!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom