Purchased a Lee Enfield No4!

JR86

JR86

Regular
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Location
SW Ontario
I went to the local gun show today in rainy Woodstock, Ontario. I was on a mission for a No 4. at a reasonable price. I love it when a plan comes together!
anyone know anything about this rifle?










 
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A fine rifle! Congrats!

One question, are you going to hunt with it? I have not shot a big game animal with my 1950 Longbranch, but I will...

Cheers
Jay
 
Nice gun. Someone has more than likely restored this example to full military wood from a sporter. The wood set itself doesn't lend to be a period Faz, as well as things like the butt plate. So IMHO you paid about right for what you have.

If I were you, I would swap out the Mk111 rear sight with an earlier Mk sight as they are far superior to the Mk 111 which was a war time expediency modification (stamped sheet, and the adjuster paddle gets caught on stuff and is prone to breakage). The "L" battle sight is effective as well 300/600 yrds and replaced the Mk111.

Is it a 2 rifle bore? What year is this rifle? I believe it a few years older than indicated on the tag ('42-'44?).




almost forgot, what was he asking for the smle and bayo above your rifle?
 
Already owned the no 1 mk 3. Only had it in picture for my brother to see difference of two rifles. (Smle was our father's and he's passed away)

There is a serial number stamped into the forestock near the barrel that matches the reciever and bolt.

Was more looking for a fun target gun with aperture sight than collectible.

Is the rear sight you're referring to the one with thumb screw? Because that's the one I'd like to get.

No big name hunting with this guy... Just yet ;)
 
+1 on Magellann's post above, adding......

....and it looks pretty nice!

The Mark 1 rear sight is a nice sight but it is slow to adjust. Because of the amount of milling necessary to make it, and that wonderfully-fine micrometer-screw adjustment, it was the bottleneck in production. It was suprceded by the Mark 2 sight: the little 300 - 600 flip sight. The Mark 3 sight as on this rifle, was preferred, even though the Catch stuck out too far. This sight has the modified Catch on the Aperture and likely could be called a Mark 3/4 sight. It is fast and quite solid and MUCH better than the little Mark 2. AFTER the War, many sights were replaced on FTR with new-made Mark 1 sights. They all interchange: the Mark 1, 2, 3, 3/4, 4, C3, C2 and any others which might be lurking in the woodwork.

NICE rifle.
 
Thanks for all the information guys. I plan on hand loading for this rifle And trying to push its accuracy to the limits. Range report when I do.
 
Nice. I was in woodstock last week but left Thursday. I saw that there was a gun show. I went to the show in Burnaby today and missed a beautiful restorable sported Long Branch by 10 seconds. I was heading to it and another guy picked it up. "Put it down!" I said to myself. Nope. Next time.
 
JR86 said:
I have heard this term "long branch" alot. What exactly is that?
Click to expand...

Long Branch Arsenal was an arms factory in Long Branch, Ontario that produced No.4 Mk1 and No.4 Mk1* Lee Enfields, as well as Stens, during the Second World War.

There are supposedly some No.5 Mk1 (Jungle Carbines) that were manufactured there too.

They also started up production of the No.4 Mk1* rifles again in 1949 and ceased production in 1950 during the Korean War (although some rifles were assembled in later years.)

Long Branch is stamped on the side of the receiver of the rifles and submachine guns made there.
 
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I think the CBC or McLean's Magazine caught us all bowing in the direction of Long Branch to say our prayers, thought we meant the REST of Toronto!

They were wrong, but it went to Toronto's head, anyway.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I started reading about ROF Fazakerley. Interesting stuff. I'm hoping to get into bullet casting for this rifle.
 
I took the rifle out today and got some rounds through it. Alot of fun to shoot. Was using a box of winchester super x 180 gr and they were hitting about 16in high at 100 yards with the target aperture flipped up and set at 100. So I went home, made some reloads with 150gr hornady interlocks at slower speeds 2000fps ish. And she's shooting about 2 inches above the front sight at 100. Couldn't ask for better. Anyone know of any issues I might have shooting a reduced load like that?

Also, when I was shooting the winchester rounds, they were a little difficult to eject, the extractor clawed the Tim on the brass a little bit and I noticed a bulge in the bottom 1/4-1/3 of the cases. Headspace issues? Guy who sold it claimed to have checked it.

Scored a 5 round 1.5" group @100 while testing reduced loads today. Great rifle!
 
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