Repro Enfield transport box/case?

mtallman

mtallman

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Hello,
I'm putting together a little museum exhibit which will (hopefully) involve a WWII era Lee Enfield No 4 Mk1 transport crate (wood) filled with a few No4's. Now, does anyone have any references or links or pics of any info regarding these crates, or how to make them.

Are there any original crates left around? After all the years, I'm sure the wood has eroded a little bit, but if not an original could work. It just has to look like its new.


Thanks.
 
I have one, but it has been painted Dark Green.
I believe originally each case held two Enfield rifles.

Sadly most ended up as firewood after the rifles where issued out of them.
Esp' in the North African Campaigns where there wasn't much firewood around.

Check with your local Army Surplus places, I remember tripping over them years back in such places.

I think I might have seen some cases in the background in some pics in the Picture section here on this board under "Enfields"...or it might have been another board.

Hope this helps...good luck.
If you need I can take measurements of it for yah.

Oh here is a pic..hope it isn't too big (73K):
SportCaseSM.jpg
 
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It may just be the flash that altered the colour, but your case is BRIGHT green.
The two that I have are definitely olive drab.
They hold one gun each, plus some small bits.
If i get some time, I will drag one out to photo and measure.
 
Yes it is the flash, but my Father in Law (RIP) painted the box...so it isn't an issued colour. :D
I look forward to seeing how yours are set up inside. :)
 
That is the first crate I have ever seen of that design. I would suggest that it is a shortened Cno7 chest, perhaps modified specifically for the sporterised rifle pictured. Normally the crates are dovetailed in the corners. The first sniper chests were made from a modified Bren Gun chest. The Canadian Cno7 cadet rifle used a similar chest, although it was a few inches shorter.
The standard #4 rifles came in an altogether different chest, and were packed in something like a dozen or 20 to the chest. I think Milarm in Edmonton has one that returned from Greece, complete with sequentially marked rifles in it.

In regards to rarity and value, I would suggest the following:
Sniper Chest, rare and high demand, $150-$450
Cno7 chest. reasonably common, $10-$40
#4 chest (holds quantity of rifles) rare, no one wants them due to their weight and the fact that you have to go buy 20 rifles to fill it; $free-$200

I have a Lithgow marked chest for the #1mk3 rifles. A couple of the local guys have them, but they are the size of a small coffee table. They came out of the Princess Auto surplus center years ago. I guess they remained after the company sold off it's inventory of #1mkIII rifles. I got mine for free from a guy who got tired of tripping on it. I'm just about in the same frame of mind myself these days.
Also, just a warning about the Cno7 chests. Many guys, especially the ebay vendors, will try and tell you that the Cno7 chest was also used for the sniper rifles as stock ran down. This was never reflected in the parts manuals, or the check lists, which to this day still refer to the normal sniper chest. The reference is strictly to raise the price up to unsuspecting buyers.

mtallman: if you are interested in such a crate from #1mk3s, and with a princess auto connection, we can talk.
 
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Hey,
Thanks a lot for the pic Calum, looks interesting.

stencollector, :) It's ironic that that crate you have was from Princess Auto, as I'm putting this together for the Princess Auto museum we will be premiering in 2-3 years (sshhhhhh, this may still be a secret :)). I was under the impression that they sold the No4 rifles, but I guess I didn't do my research, or mabye they sold both? There is an old stash of 50's and 60's catalogues around which I'll try to dig up and I'll check for details. I think the prices were something like $15-25 per rifle, and ammunition was also sold.

Now, the problem with a big case is all the rifles which would be required to fill it, but I'm sure I could find a way around this.

On to legalities...does anyone know if it would be legal just to cable tie the trigger and leave it on display? I already may have a few rifles if this is the case, and I may also look at putting te whole display in a locked plastic display case..

Thanks.

Hmm...
PM sent
 
Well isn't that something...Hey thanx Sten collector for the Cno7 case info. :)

Yes tootal it has cradles inside.

mtallman thanx for bringing this topic up, and I look forward to hearing more about your project. :)
 
No.4 rifle crate.

Drop me an email/PM. I have an original Longbranch crate that I probably would be willing to sell. Shipping is your baby (mabye bus???)
 
No 1 MkIII H.T. Sniper transit chest (repo)

Greetings All,
I was lucky enough to find a good wood worker and someone who knows Enfields to build me a transit chest for my Australian low mount sniper. Since one was never issued, it afforded me the opportunity to mark it as I saw fit and what I thought would have been appropriate nomenclature. If interested, you can contact Chris at Cataldob@msn.com in Indiana(?) in the US and take to him about building one for you.

Best Regards,
Michael

3d0b84ad.jpg

DSC04892.jpg

DSC04898.jpg
 
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mtallman said:
Now, the problem with a big case is all the rifles which would be required to fill it, but I'm sure I could find a way around this.

On to legalities...does anyone know if it would be legal just to cable tie the trigger and leave it on display? I already may have a few rifles if this is the case, and I may also look at putting te whole display in a locked plastic display case..
Click to expand...
You might be able to find a couple of drill rifles that have already been deactivated.
 
That one up top is pretty close. Very nice rifle by the way.

Here's the No 7 case compared to the #4T case. Both have the original writing on the sides and matching rifles. I have seen No4T cases with yellow, grey, pale red and pale green or as in this case, exterior olive interior. I have 4 No7 cases and they are all olive interiors.

I have seen multi gun (4+) boxes but they are made up for rifle teams, usually out of some type of large crate and painted by the unit, to protect the rifles once ready for match use.

msivwn.jpg


This one is complete with all the cleaning tools, one piece rod (obtained from this site) and original tragets. Forgot to put a box of ammo in. You can just see the cleaning tools on the left of the bracket standing up on end. The box is slightly smaller than the No4T box.

msiw5z.jpg


Note the leather straps vs canvas and the latch's are bare compared to the protected latches of the No7. A local gun dealer told me they used to smash up the crates and throw them out in the 60's and 70's, along with the scopes as the rifles were "sporterized" for hunting. "Too heavy to cart up and down the stairs". The new Springfield Garand's came with a nice rifle box, kind of similar to these but they opened from side to side with the top falling backwards and the gun was left sitting on it's two wooden pedastles.

For ####s and giggles I put in the two different scope cases and the rest of the stuff found in the case.
 
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