Ever see one of these ???

[jmoore]

I'd pull the trigger anyday on a LN 1903 before I did so on this thing. I think I'll remove the bolt, a couple of other bits and pieces and saw up the rest.

Thanks for all your help and opinions.

Emri

Aw, don't cut it up! There's lots of work in creating that oddity. (But I shoot low S/N '03s, so you know I'm nuts...) What would it take to NOT cut it?

[HILLBILLY-06]

Guys: That reciever looks pretty normal right down to details like the rivets on the charger guide. I've read about sporters made by chopping off the butt-socket allowing for a full stock. I'll bet it's a real action body. If someone in the Khyber pass can make something like that with files and chunks of railroad it's amazing.

Ridolpho

AND just think, lots of guys been shooting welded receiver M1 Garands for years, and never even knew it until someone started bringing it out in the open. And to this guy... "If you ran a proofing round through it, I'm betting it would be a Pakistani hand grenade... " you may be right, but some folks are still shooting welded receivers and getting away with it. That don't actually mean its "junk" It's likely all someone had to work with at the time. Gunsmithing by nature, if done by proffesionals, no matter what country there in, does often work for the purpose in which it was intended to work.
I wouldn't bash the poor guy that has it now so bad, he didn't ever say he just purchased a $6K tactical rifle now did he? What he did say looked to me was:
Is it an Enfield that has been ground off and commercially sporterized? Or is it a Kybar Pass special made with a forge, hammers, and files ?? No other markings but for the 2 shown.
I'm inclined to give him a little more slack than he just got some some of you. And No, I aint from Pakistan either. I never even been there. I think what he has is a great example of modern enginuity from back in a day in time, when you worked with what you got. Sometimes, that may not be much, but it's all you got, so you make due with it while you can. Heck, people still do it.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The big difference, HILLBILLY06, is that the Garand is FRONT locking whilst the Lee Enfield is rear locking. Re-welding and re-heat treating the 8620 steel in a Garand receiver is not to be undertaken lightly.

I have seen quite a few P-14s and some Mausers that have been abbreviated by taking a slice out of the receiver just forward of the rear bridge and re-welding. The bolts are likewise modified, usually by making stepped cuts in the middle of the bolt body and rejoining using silver solder. In both procedures, the locking and camming surfaces are kept cool via wet packing so that the hardness is unaffected.

A long time ago I saw a No1 Mk3 shortened in a similar manner. However, that job was done to run a certain sub-sonic rimless pistol cartridge in a compact package. It worked, but it seemed like a lot of work for the end result, especially as in both the Mauser and Lee Enfield shortenings, there is the problem of making a new stock to suit.

[mack]

Bruce (and others), remember that there was no such thing as short receivers (Ruger, Remington) and a short cartridge was impractical in those longer receivers. You could also buy labor for $5-7 an hour instead of $20-40, as is the case today. Stock work could be had for a couple of hundred even in the 80's and less in the decades prior to the 80's.

We have become so enmeshed in this notion that "if it isn't totally original, it must be a fake, a Bubba or a Kyber Pass abomination and therefore should be junked or cut up so only the perfect and pure will survive for posterity." So sorry, fellas, that ain't gonna happen! They are making new sporter stocks for Enfields and I just bought all the coach work off a Mk III at a recent gunshow, so obvioulsly there are some out there making sporters from Enfields.

This rifle is likely no more dangerous than a number of other custom rifles, both good and bad. Go to any gunshow to see all those available in your area. And the prices will all be sooooooo reasonable, so get all you can afford.