Value of wire wrapped Enfield

mjay22

mjay22

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1945 GRI no1 wire wrapped Enfield

All matching numbers including magazine.
Bore is very bright with strong rifling.
Test fired 5 rounds of .303 wolf ammo, no issues, grouped pretty nice.
No cracks or issues with stock.
Only negative is safety seems to not engage.

Any idea on value, I dont see them often.
Thx

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When International first brought those in, they had a tough time selling them.

They only brought in a few hundred and it took them a couple of years to sell them all. Most of them were in about the condition or the one in the pictures, some were a bit worse and a few had been used for training and were beat to hell, with cracked stocks and burned out bores from the HOT blank cartridges used to propel the Mills Bomb, on top of a steel rod.

The only people interested in them at the time were collectors. There was a rumor that they had all been overstressed, but that's all it was. I bought two of them and the headspace was close to perfect. The bolts locked up tight and there wasn't any obvious wear to the locking lugs or recesses.

Even today, it's mostly serious collectors that are interested in those rifles. I believe the $1000 mentioned is pretty much still the same today.
 
If it helps I purchased nearly new No1 Mk3 rifle (FRT 1953) with perfect bore, all matching and like new wood for $1050 lately. I am not a collector though. Just wanted a clean example of a SMLE.
 
A wire-wrapped rifle fills a niche in a collector's succession of pieces, like an armourer's cutaway will. Otherwise, it is a curious artifact that begs to be unwrapped and shot!
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
A wire-wrapped rifle fills a niche in a collector's succession of pieces, like an armourer's cutaway will. Otherwise, it is a curious artifact that begs to be unwrapped and shot!
Click to expand...

I hope you're not suggesting it be unwrapped! Shoot it with the wrap on, it wasn't going to win matches anyway!

To OP, your rifle looks quite nice and is hardly a commonly encountered variation (though not as rare as a WW1 grenade projecting rifle). I agree that top value would be a grand, the trouble is that to complete your rifle you need the cup attachment for the muzzle which while available in the US are very scarce up here. Unwrapping it would bring the price down to the $550 range even if it is matching. The mills bombs with steel rod attached were more of a WW1 technology afaik, by the time of your rifle they had moved to the cup system. That said my memory could be failing me, my copy of Skennerton's book is a few provinces away.
 
BlackPowderBurner said:
I hope you're not suggesting it be unwrapped! Shoot it with the wrap on, it wasn't going to win matches anyway!

To OP, your rifle looks quite nice and is hardly a commonly encountered variation (though not as rare as a WW1 grenade projecting rifle). I agree that top value would be a grand, the trouble is that to complete your rifle you need the cup attachment for the muzzle which while available in the US are very scarce up here. Unwrapping it would bring the price down to the $550 range even if it is matching. The mills bombs with steel rod attached were more of a WW1 technology afaik, by the time of your rifle they had moved to the cup system. That said my memory could be failing me, my copy of Skennerton's book is a few provinces away.
Click to expand...

Very cool thanks for the info! As long as its in my hands, it'll stay original. Its mostly a safe queen anyways
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
A wire-wrapped rifle fills a niche in a collector's succession of pieces, like an armourer's cutaway will. Otherwise, it is a curious artifact that begs to be unwrapped and shot!
Click to expand...

They function perfectly as a regular rifle when they don't have a Mills Bomb stuck in them. If the bores are VG to EXC, they're quite accurate.

They were designed to be used by the rifleman as a general purpose firearm as well as a grenade launcher in a pinch.
 
BlackPowderBurner said:
I hope you're not suggesting it be unwrapped! Shoot it with the wrap on, it wasn't going to win matches anyway!

To OP, your rifle looks quite nice and is hardly a commonly encountered variation (though not as rare as a WW1 grenade projecting rifle). I agree that top value would be a grand, the trouble is that to complete your rifle you need the cup attachment for the muzzle which while available in the US are very scarce up here. Unwrapping it would bring the price down to the $550 range even if it is matching. The mills bombs with steel rod attached were more of a WW1 technology afaik, by the time of your rifle they had moved to the cup system. That said my memory could be failing me, my copy of Skennerton's book is a few provinces away.
Click to expand...

Thanx for the clarification, I was under the impression these used a steel rod attached to a grenade?? Whatever, I wholly agree with you.
 
The wire wrapping is something people with access to the advanced reference books know about. But, no matter what the hobby, how many repairs and shop alterations have been negated or reversed by someone 'making it right'? For example, Ian McCollum has recently posted videos on Forgotten Weapons about variations of British service rifles, and the interesting nuances from one approved pattern to another. We know that there is considerable confusion between sporterized No. 4 rifles and EAL rifles. As different as chalk and cheese, but if someone didn't know the differences, the more interesting and unique EAL would be treated like a $25 hardware store bin find from the 1960s.
 
Hi Suther. The copper wire wrap is to reinforce the fore stock so the wood doesn't split. You also can see a large lateral reinforce bolt in the fore to prevent the fore from splitting lengthwise. One copper end was made sharp and tapped into the wood and then wire wrapped for a particular length and then its end implanted the same. Both ends of the wrap were then soldered to prevent unravelling through use. The Indian example shown was in use as in reality mass civil unrest on occasions need smoke grenades for crowd dispersal. Mills bombs with a flat base were used for grenade discharge in active service. The first grenades were rodded grenades of various designs and the cup discharger was a late WW1 invention. RFI and Brit made dischargers can be seen. Firing a blank the rifle was placed butt down on the ground for discharge. Effective range of course depends on grenade weight and case charge. At least the Feds haven't restricted these yet. JOHN
 
Suther said:
Can someone please explain the purpose of the wire?thanks!
Click to expand...

It was done, along with a couple of screws, to stop the fore end from splitting

The grenades weren't launched from the shoulder. The correct procedure was to place the butt on the ground, chamber a BLANK cartridge and place a Mills Bomb (grenade) into a steel cup, with the arming lever still in place and pull the retaining pin. Then launch it towards the enemy, the arming lever will fly off in flight.

I've tried them with inert practice bombs and they require a decent skill set to get the bomb in the desired location. Range is adjusted by guesstimation and distance correction is very similar to a mortar. The higher the angle, the closer the bomb will fall.

There's no other way to adjust trajectory
 
jtaylor said:
Hi Suther. The copper wire wrap is to reinforce the fore stock so the wood doesn't split. You also can see a large lateral reinforce bolt in the fore to prevent the fore from splitting lengthwise. One copper end was made sharp and tapped into the wood and then wire wrapped for a particular length and then its end implanted the same. Both ends of the wrap were then soldered to prevent unravelling through use. The Indian example shown was in use as in reality mass civil unrest on occasions need smoke grenades for crowd dispersal. Mills bombs with a flat base were used for grenade discharge in active service. The first grenades were rodded grenades of various designs and the cup discharger was a late WW1 invention. RFI and Brit made dischargers can be seen. Firing a blank the rifle was placed butt down on the ground for discharge. Effective range of course depends on grenade weight and case charge. At least the Feds haven't restricted these yet. JOHN
Click to expand...

The grenade launching cup isn't prohibited by name, yet, but it is over 20 mm bore, so it probably falls into the catch-all prohibition.
 
Thanks everyone who explained the wire wrap.

Funny enough, I actually found out the answer myself without trying. I was listening to an episode of C&Rsenal's Small Arms of WW1 Primer series on Youtube about the Lebel rifle and they touched on it there.
 
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