Suggestions for an unsalvageable Lee Enfield

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Bleddyn

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Victoria, B.C
Hey there, So the family recently found a crawl space special Lee Enfield Mk 3 (I believe, not 100% on exact make/model all I know is it's a .303 Br) unfortunately it's rusted past the point of salvage (within my budget) on the exterior as well as inside the barrel, it got passed along to a gunsmith to give a once over along with the other finds but I'm 99.99% sure he's going to tell me what I already know. so my question is, any suggestions for a project with an old rifle? a few things I have had suggested or thought of were to first deactivate it (epoxy in the barrel and drill the bolt) and either turn it into a wall piece or give it to an artist friend to paint/make a project of. any other ideas?

Cheers!
 
I had one that the barrel was rusted shut(couldn't see light through the bore) one time. I cleaned it really well and it turned into a bright shiny and sharp bore near excellent. Don't write em off until you've tried to save it, it may just reward you.
 
Relics can make great displays. I love the look of them.

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In case you go the deactivation road beware that an epoxy barrel and a drilled bolr head are NOT accepted deactivation process by the RCMP.
If by any bad luck a police officer comes into your house and finds it you could be in big trouble.
Barrel and bolt must be welded.

As for projects making a sapper (or tunneler) version or a skeleton display rifle is a nice way to use a unsalvageable rifle or parts.
Both would still need to be deactivated though.
 
you'd be surprised what a little oil, steel wool and a bore brush will do.
I've saved some pretty ugly guns from being scrapped and made them very presentable and shoot able without refinishing the metal

If it is really bad, parts or a proper deac for hanging on the wall.
Pics are worth a thousand words
 
I can't see that rifle being any worse than the Nepalese francotte pattern martini henry I got from IMA out of the states. It was one of those untouched cache guns they found in the palace arsenal and it has about 138yrs of rust and grease on it. The finish on it was pretty well gone on it so I made the call to de-rust it using metal rescue from cdn tire and while it stripped the blueing off it also has removed all of the rust down to bare metal and its currently stewing to try and free up the seized action. so no matter how bad it may seem chances are good its still salvageable.
 
A friend of mine was given an old #4 MK1 which he brought to me to clean. The exterior metal cleaned up quite well with Hoppes #9 and steel wool & then oil. The first pass of a dry brass brush down the bore produced a shower of rust from the muzzle. I tried 4 or 5 different solvents, including JB Bore Paste (lapping compound). After several days of soaking & cleaning, the bore still looked like the craters of the moon with a bore-light. I finally told him it would never shoot for ####. He didn't want to give up on it & bought 2 boxes of Imperial factory ammo. Imagine my surprise when he was picking off gophers @ 80 to 100 yds with iron sights and rarely missing. That rifle contradicted every rule for accuracy that I am aware of, & I still can't explain it! I guess every gun is a law unto itself.
 
Plus one on all above. Don't say it is toast. Your may be suprised. Seen many look like scrap and with a little effort they were good shooters, parts guns or wall hangers.
Trick, my cousin told me instead of steel wool and oil, try oil and an old penny. It cuts though the rust and leaves the blueing intact, most of the time (results vary)
For soiled wood stocks use tung oil/linseed oil and fine steel wool. This works good and really makes a nice outcome.
Be safe
 
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