restoreable No1 MkIII (?)

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Workin Man

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I just traded an old bolt action 20ga to my dad for his old No1 MkIII bubba. If I remember right the bolt, barrel and action all have matching numbers (I havent got it in my hands yet). I'm not really a collector, so I don't know where else to check for serial numbers. As far as I know, only the wood has been chopped, but again, not sure what to look for. Charging bridge is intact, no sight ears front or rear, no bayo lug that I recall (haven't looked at it in almost 20yrs). I'm looking to sell it, not restore it myself, so I'm just wondering if its worth restoring to a collector, or just another sporter? I know photo's would help a lot, but don't have any at this time.
 
The wood is the hard part to get. The bayonet lug is on the metal nose cap, and if yours has cut wood, then it will not be there. All of the metal parts can be found.

I restored one. It cost me about $150. At that time they were selling for $150.... :)
 
wood prices have gone up and just finding decent wood is getting hard. Metal bits are also getting harder to find.

I suspect restoration is going to cost about $200 or more once you get the metal bands and screws. Gettting the corect parts with the same factory markings is crazy, unless you order a bunch and sort them yourself.
 
Thanks guys. As I mentioned though, I have no intentions of restoring this myself, original milsurp rifles are not my thing. I was planning on selling my shotgun to help fund another purchase, but my dad wanted it and offered to trade this rifle for it. It has no sentimental value to me (or my dad, I told him I was going to sell it if we made the trade).I was just wondering if I should try to find a buyer who wanted to restore it, or just let it go to as a sporter, to some guy who wants to put an ATI stock and Weaver TO1 on it. I will be asking the same price regardless, but I wouldn't want to see a potential collector piece get trashed, if it is a potential collector.
 
well unless its an interesting varient its not worth a lot.

If it is lets say a NRF rifle or BSA comercial target rifle, other such varient then it's worth more.

Take pictures of markings and post here, particulary any markings on the right side of the wrist/butsocket.
 
I won't have it on hand to take any pics till next weekend at the earliest. I'm pretty sure its just a plain jane No1. The shotgun I traded for it was only worth $100 to $125 or so, I think I should be able to get that much for it, it's in a lot better shape than most sporters. I will post some pics when I get it.
 
You'd be surprised what's out there. These things were made by 6 different factories, under 7 different names, and they are ALL available.

Found an NRF, all numbers matching, exc bore, under $100 but that was some years ago. Guy in the shop sold it cheap because it was ugly.

Also spent 15 years to find an SSA, so they're not all common.

Still, they are all fun and most of them can be made to shoot quite well. And each and every one of them is a piece of history, a lot of which is on the rifles themselves if you can read the stamps.

Have fun!
 
In order of rarest to least based on production figures, includes MkIII and MkIII*:

1) NRF
2) SSA
3) LSA
4) Lithgow
5) Ishapore
6) RSAF Enfield
7) BSA Co.

Then you have your rarer variants of the rarer MkIII/III* Enfields like the 1916 SSA converted to No.2MkIV* that I have, or the SMLE MkI's converted to MkII I.P., etc. :)
 
I have one which I'm going to restore . A 1916 Mk111* with pinned windage rearsight and cutoff slot .
I figured out that with the parts from Numrich ( $180cdn aprox ) plus the cost of the "bubba'd" rifle ( $100 ) , It's going to be worth about $280 to " me ".
 
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