yellow paint on lee enfield muzzles

infideleggwelder

infideleggwelder

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
49   0   0
Location
Go east they said. it will be fun, they said
little while ago Wolfgang7 posted pics of a lee enfield with yellow paint traces on the muzzle. was wondering in anyone else had one with similar traces. looking mostly for early to mid nineties purchases.
reason is the movie "legends of the fall" was filmed outside Calgary and about 700-900 lee enfields with yellow painted muzzles were used. just curious to see if anyone else out there has one.
 
Most of the enfields from Australia were painted. They came from military schools where they were used by cadets.
 
Yah more times then not the M1/M14s and Lee Enfields you see with: White, Yellow, Blue or Red paint on them normally a ring on the muzzle or a band on the stock would indicate Cadet or some form of training rifle with the US made Savage .303 L.E. 4mk1 rifles if you find one unmolested or converted to .22 BUY IT... there will be someone out there willing to pay more then what you paid.
 
i remember dunking those rifles used in the movie in paint remover and scrubbing away with wire brushes, and steel wool. we only gave the first 100 or so really good cleanings, all the rest would be too far from the camera for anyone to notice any trace of yellow paint. it was on about the first 10 inches or so. looked like they dipped them in the paint.
 
infideleggwelder said:
i remember dunking those rifles used in the movie in paint remover and scrubbing away with wire brushes, and steel wool. we only gave the first 100 or so really good cleanings, all the rest would be too far from the camera for anyone to notice any trace of yellow paint. it was on about the first 10 inches or so. looked like they dipped them in the paint.
Click to expand...

Guy who worked for me was an extra in the movie. Found a British bank note in the battle dress he was issued.:) Some good stories about the mud and the blow up dead horses. Lot of battle footage filmed that never made the movie.

Grizz
 
You have to wonder where movie companies get their rifles from. Myself and 4 of my friends where all extras in the Mini-series 'Deippe'. There was a tractor trailer PACKED full of No4 mk1's. All of them in really nice shape. There where 186 extra's with rifles on the beach at one point and that did not even dent what was in that trailer. I even remember seeing several anti-tank rifles in there to. I often wondered what happened to them after the 'shooting' was over.
 
Grizzly Adams said:
Guy who worked for me was an extra in the movie. Found a British bank note in the battle dress he was issued.:) Some good stories about the mud and the blow up dead horses. Lot of battle footage filmed that never made the movie.

Grizz
Click to expand...
i was an extra as well in that movie, kept my hat. still have it. had to take leave but the WO ended up tearing up the leave pass. i liked that guy. i understand, could be wrong, some of them went into surplus, but a friend who was directly involved with the props told me recently that the movie company allegedly stock piled many for future movies. i know for a fact a few were stolen from the set, won't say how i know, and sadly no, i don't have one. my only enfield is a No 5.
 
I remember reading years ago that after WW1 a lot of German stuff was bought out to Hollywood and used right into 50`s in movies. If you watch any of the old black and white shows you`ll see original equipment in them. Like the movie Sahara with Humfrey Bogart the Germans in WW2 Africa corps were using WW1 Gew 98`s and WW1 1916 helmets. Later years the same was done with WW2 German equipment, and from time to time you`ll see a VZ24 in there like the German on the mule taking coffee to troops at beach in Longest Day, I believe he was using a VZ24.
 
there were Cases of WWI Gew98's from the movie (Legends of the fall) sold through Crown surplus in Calgary, after the movie was done. would go in there once a week, and get drool all over them.
 
I recall sorting through about 20 Australian No 1 Mk III* rifles that were brought in by either Marstar, Districorp or Century back in the mid 1990's that had the muzzles dipped in yellow paint. I had heard the same stories about them being used by cadet corps. Most of the batch had less than great bores, but the rifles overall were around VG condition and quite safe to shoot. There was one in that batch dated either 1917 or 1920 if I recall correctly (that I didn't grab, unfortunately). Pretty decent rifles overall, but it took a while to sell them as interest in Australian stuff just wasn't that strong at the time.
 
There were hundred's of the Australian No1 Mk3's brought into canada. I bought over 100 of them at the time. They varied in condition and you could purchase them by color on the band.
I had some very nice 1920's issue guns.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom