Found in a loft....

[Thunderbox]

One of the very few benefits of living in UK these days is that there still remain a host of undiscovered Lee Enfield treasures concealed in lofts and attics of houses around the country.

Probably thousands of rifles and pistols were secreted away after WW1 and WW2 - weapons "misplaced" by soldiers, souvenir'd off battlefields, or pinched by kids from the depots that used to cover the country.

Sadly, most of these weapons end up being handed to the Police and quickly destroyed. A very few are handed in to registered dealers and "legitimised".

This rifle was found by someone, buried in the mica roof insulation in the loft of their house. The previous two owners of the house knew nothing about the rifle's presence, and so far no link has been discovered to a possible wartime owner.

The rifle is a 1915 No1 MkIII, with typical WW1 re-stock. It is 100% all-matching including its original 1915 barrel and - when hidden - was in near mint military issue condition. The rifle provides a wonderful specimen example of what an actual British military SMLE looked like, before 60+ years of abuse at the hands of subsequent civilian owners:

- the fit of forend and other parts is superb;
- screwheads are untouched and mostly staked;
- the bolthead is tight in line with the bolt rib;
- the barrel is cosmoline'd under the wood;
- the handguards appear to be new.

When rifle had no wrapping or cover when found, and so had suffered extensive surface rusting:



The butt contained a pull-through, complete with the last piece of flannelette used!











1915 barrel date - and no civilian proof marks at all....!





Interestingly, the sling appears to be stamped "N/\Z". Other marks are too faint to make out:




The screw heads are all "un-buggered" (REME technical phrase, apparently, according to Peter Laidler......)




The corrosion had attacked the metalwork to varying degrees - presumably depending upon the surface finishing of the individual component. The receiver body cleaned up surprisingly well, using just wire wool and oil. Other parts - the bolt knob, bands, sling swivels and nosecap - were more deeply rust-pitted and required more aggressive cleaning. These parts now have a faint stipple and "plum" colour of rust staining. The wood was undamaged, and responded immediately to cleaning with turps/RLO mix.












So far, the rifle has cleaned up quite well. The bore had been unprotected by any greasing or thick preservative. A patch only removed a very slight trace of greenish film. Whatever it was - and I assume it was issue Rangoon oil - it did an amazing job: unbelievably, the bore is bright and shiny, and appears to have fired just a couple of hundred rounds since new!

Information

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[Badger]

Awesome ....

Thanks for posting the pics and the background ...

Regards,
Badger

[Amatikulu]

I note that the rifle has:

1. Piling swivel (assume large size)
2. small nose cap screw head
3. Windage adjustable rear sight
4. butt stock disk (any markings?)
5. Magazine cutt-off
6. oval cocking piece
7. dimpled rear site protector

Who was the manufacturer?

It's very interesting as I can see the stock is missing the volley sites and assume this is what you mean is a typical WW1 restock.

Do you think it was restocked post WW1?

[Mr303]

Nice find, it cleaned up very well. A bit of elbow grease and steel wool can do wonders, I did a similar job with a Metford and a No1 that I bought, they had been sitting in a wool shed for 50 years and were pretty filthy. Good on ya.

[bradtx]

Thunderbox, Will it be made 'legit'? What luck to at least pass through your hands.

Brad

[Thunderbox]

I note that the rifle has:

1. Piling swivel (assume large size)
2. small nose cap screw head
3. Windage adjustable rear sight
4. butt stock disk (any markings?)
5. Magazine cutt-off
6. oval cocking piece
7. dimpled rear site protector

Who was the manufacturer?

It's very interesting as I can see the stock is missing the volley sites and assume this is what you mean is a typical WW1 restock.

Do you think it was restocked post WW1?

Its an Enfield-made rifle and, apart from the replacement forend, every part is marked "EFD" and appears to be original to the rifle.

The general configuration is correct for the "inter war" standard of MkIII SMLE, with the possible exception of the small nose cap screw and the windage sights (which only have one rifle number on them - matching this rifle - instead of six or seven rebuild numbers).

What is interesting is that the original barrel has had so little use that it implies the "old" forend with volley sights can't have been much damaged by service use when it was replaced. Perhaps they simply FTR'd the MkIIIs and got rid of the volley sights anyway? That would explain why so few of them survive.

This rifle has no markings other than its set of 1915 proof & inspection marks. There appear to be no FTR or refurb inspection stamps at all, which possibly indicates that the forend was a wartime field workshop replacement. If the rifle was 1916 or later, I'd have speculated that it was even built with this "transition" forend - unlike most restocked MkIIIs, this one has a perfect match in colour & wear between butt & forend.

[Thunderbox]

Thunderbox, Will it be made 'legit'? What luck to at least pass through your hands.

Brad

Its "legit" now that its on my dealer register. UK firearms law allows for dealers to accept anonymous "hand ins" - this was historically necessary because of the thousands of wartime guns like this hidden away. Dealers are not even obliged to inform the Police - but generally do if there is any chance the weapon might be stolen or otherwise connected to a crime. Rusty service rifles of obvious wartime vintage have generally been regarded as untraceable and of little relevance to the Police. Unfortunately these days many UK police forces have decided to make up their own laws without reference to Parliament, which is why I have chosen not to show this rifle's number or butt disk marks. Unfortunately, it pays to be paranoid in UK these days.....

[Strangely Brown]

Was there a unit marking on the butt disc?

[Claven2]

Being a 1915, it cold have been made late in the year or assembled early in 1916 as a transitional and may never have been fitted with volley sights.

[powdermonkey72]

Excellent!