Registry for mismatched Enfield parts?

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stickhunter

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Hi,

As I learn more about Enfields, it seems pretty common to find rifles with magazines or bolts whose serial numbers do not match the receiver. Has anyone heard of a "registry" where you can record your mismatched serial numbers and find out if anyone has the match to your mismatch?

I don't know if such a system would be useful for actually restoring an Enfield to an all-matching state since the chance of a set of swaps satisfying all participants would be unlikely, but it'd be an interesting curiousity none-the-less. So is there anything like this out there?

On a related note, what are the usual reasons for mismatches occurring in the first place? I would have thought arsenals would be pretty particular about maintaining matching numbers, so do the mismatches usually occur when the rifles are imported to North America (i.e., bolts stripped and shipped seperately from rifles)?
 
A lot of the work was done during war-time, when the important thing was getting working rifles to the troopies before Fritz decided to pay a visit. The British really didn't care under those circumstances, although they were pretty rigorous when they had the time, renumbering parts to a particular rifle.

I think a lot of the scrambling got done on this side of the Puddle, as normal British practice was (and is) to ship rifles with the bolts out.... and who knows what kind oif idiots put them together again? Alberta, for example, is lousy with beautiful Parker-Hale Mausers that don't chamber rounds.... or else rip the heads off. Problem there is that Eaton's (I think.... could have been Simpson's-Sears) brought in a whole huge shipment at one time, then hired college kids who knew nothing to take the preservative coating off, clean them up.... and put the bolts in. Well, of course, ANY bolt will fit into an UNLOADED rifle...... so they were all the right bolts, weren't they? Yup. Right up until you put a cartridge into the thing! Gave Parker-Hale rifles a really bad name in Alberta which they do NOT deserve.

But your idea is just peachy-keen and I'm sure that a lot of guys would participate.

Now.... if only somebody would do the same for LUGER parts. I have 3 guns, all mismatches. Bummer!
 
Had that happen in a gun store when I bought a No1Mk1. For some reason idiots would steal the bolts out of enfield rifles, no idea why. anyway the dealer handed me the rifle and then a bolt out of a drawer under the counter, for a no1Mk3! Had just enough knowledge that I knew it was the wrong one. He did have the right bolt in the same drawer.
 
Newfoundland instituted what was called "The Moose Test" about 30 years ago as a prerequisite for obtaining a big-game licence. The Wildlife guys who were running it had a policy with ex-military rifles that no rifle with non-matching bolt and body would be allowed to shoot the test. They were trying to minimise problems.

I know for a fact that my Enfield 1907 Mark I*** was the only non-matching rifle in the province that was allowed to shoot the test.... and that was only because the Wildlife guys knew that I had rebuilt it myself and that it was SAFE.
My friend Jack shot the test, too, but his rifle was just as 'matching' as it was the day he gave the Armourer a bottle for taking the butt off so it would fit into his duffle bag.... in 1919!

Oh, the fun!
 
"...a "registry"..." No such thing. Wouldn't help anyway. The chances of finding a particular bolt are virtually zero. You won't find records of what unit or troopie got which rifle either. Those records were just not kept.
Thousands of both models of Lee-Enfield have been assembled out of parts bins with no regard for the serial numbers or headspace. Not just by Eaton's or Simpsons either. Century Arms was and is notorious for their total lack of QC. Thousands more were declared as unserviceable and the parts sold or destroyed. Then throw in the numbers made. Literally millions.
"...no rifle with non-matching bolt..." What nonsense. Idiot civil servants making rules about things they know nothing about. A matching bolt is no guarantee that the headspace is good.
"...as it was the day he..." Stole the rifle.
 
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