Took some lee enfields to "the pit"

S

Skaal-tel

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Hey guys. Thought I'd share this weekend's adventure.

I purchased a no4 mk1 from a gunnutter, a nice piece :)

My friend traded a $25 lee valley gift certificate for his no1 mkIII*!

Both have been sporterized, the no4 mk1 has the simple 300/600 flip peep sight, full length barrel and matching serial numbers as far as I can tell. I may start collecting wood pieces for it :)

the no1 mkIII* has a cut barrel, lyman sight on the front, rollercoaster sight in back. Didn't come with a mag but we found one for him.

Here are some pics!!

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My friend

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The no4mk1 loaded for bear

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no4mk1
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no1mkIII*
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So that sums it up nicely.

From what I understand mine is a fazakerly produced british rifle, deemed blr post war and returned for refit in 49 to the factory. no4mk1(F)FTR-49 then it got surplused and someone had their way with the furniture.

My friend's SMLE appears to have traveled around the world 7 times by all the stampings. Neither of us can decipher all the markings, except to guess that it seems to be a genuine WW1 of british manufacture.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend, it has been spitting rain and snow all week up here. I'm trying to pack in the fun while I can. :)
 
That's great, and looks like you had a blast.
It doesn't matter what you shoot, as long as you have fun.

I miss those gravel pits, not too may here in Toronto... :(
I went to the range today with my two (babies) Enfields, and had nearly as much fun as you... :)

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no4mk1 and a jungle carbine? Very cool :)

I used to live in Ottawa but I'm thoroughly enjoying living a little more out in the woods. I can drive 15 minutes to my local shooting spot.

So here's a ridiculous question.. what is my point of aim with these sights? I spent a fair amount of time trying to zero the rifle.

I had to locate the front blade properly.. challenging.

Then I had to figure out where to put the blade in the sight picture to hit the paper.. challenging. I downloaded the CF manuals but none mention what a good sight picture should look like. Of course. (step 1, remove engine. step 2, .... etc)

Any tips? No ladder sight on mine.
 
Skaal-tel said:
no4mk1 and a jungle carbine? Very cool :)

I used to live in Ottawa but I'm thoroughly enjoying living a little more out in the woods. I can drive 15 minutes to my local shooting spot.

So here's a ridiculous question.. what is my point of aim with these sights? I spent a fair amount of time trying to zero the rifle.

I had to locate the front blade properly.. challenging.

Then I had to figure out where to put the blade in the sight picture to hit the paper.. challenging. I downloaded the CF manuals but none mention what a good sight picture should look like. Of course. (step 1, remove engine. step 2, .... etc)

Any tips? No ladder sight on mine.
Click to expand...

Sorry, can't help you, mine have adjustable sights which i use accordingly.
And I should mention that all my ammo are my own reloads.
 
Your No4 looks like it has an "A" prefix serial number, which would make it early ROF Fazakerly production. Looks like the markings on the butt socket were ground off when it was FTR'd (Factory Thorough Repair) and re-marked on the left side of the action. The date of FTR is there: month and year.

It's been reblued, as those markings would have been bright bare metal originally.

Overall looks in good shape.

Your SMLE is a "peddled scheme" rifle where the manufacture was spread out to various small factories and then assembled centrally. That's the "SSA" mark. You'll notice that the rifle was probably sold off in the 1920s or 30s and then called back into service for WWII. That's why the sale marks of two broad arrows tip to tip, have been lined out.

There is a gap between the face of the action and the shoulder of the barrel on the SMLE. That's because the SMLE breeched up on the rear face of the barrel, not the shoulder. The No.4 is the opposite and should never have a gap there.
 
A thin lead crush washer commonly was used in breeching-up the Number 1 rifles.

Standard Small Arms (SSA) made the SMALLEST number of SMLE rifles built in England during the Great War. The plat was nationalised at the end of 1917 and renamed as National Rifle Factory Number 1 (for the metal parts) with woodwork being done at National Rifle Factory Number 2.

IN THEORY, SSA did not build rifles in 1918, although this one is prominently marked as SSA and as 1918. Likely what happened was that the action already was marked with the SSA mark and the rifle completed under the new regime and, most likely, counted as an NRF rifle (the kind of thing that government expropriators like to do, thus showing their great efficiency at getting a plant operating again. Fact is that it never ceased production!). This dates your rifle to the early part of January of 1918. And you still have the original barrel!

An SSA is something that a lot of collectors spend a long time to find. Compared to their rarity, they are disgustingly undervalued.

So you got the rarest one first! What you need next are (in order of number built, starting at next-lowest) NRF, London Small Arms (LSA Co), Birmingham Small Arms (BSA Co) and Enfield. LITHGOWS are Australian, ISHAPOREs are Indian, but all the parts interchange.

(Then you multiply by the years from 1907 through to 1918 or 1943 or 1956 or 1966 or something and you have an idea how many more SMLEs you really NEED to collect!)

Welcome to the club!
 
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