Newbie Enfield Lession

I think I made a big newbie mistake at a show yesterday. Had not been in the show five minutes and a guy walked by with a MKIII for sale. He had a 1917 BSA all matching with a mirrow shiny bore. This was the cleanest Enfield of any model I have seen in the last few months since I started collecting. The gent was asking $289.00. The thing that made me hesitate was the magazine literally rattled in the mag well it was so loose. It held firm from front to rear but had a lot of movement from side to side. I had never handled a Enfield that had that issue. I told the guy that I would look around a little and find him If I decided to haggle later. Mean while I spoke with some seasoned Enfield guys that said buy as the loose mag issue was an easy fix. Well I looked all over to find the dude with the MKIII on his shoulder. In frustration I decided the leave the show and as I started out the door who did bump into? The smiling Englishman who had, yes had (past Tense) the MKIII. He said a few minutes after we talked some young guy came up and bought it. I kicked my own butt all the way home! I was concerned about feed issues with the rifle thus I hesitated on buying it. So fellows, was my concerns legit in the case of Enfield rifles??:banghead:

Everyone has a "one that got away" storey. It is par for the course. Don't worry about it. There are still plenty of nice No.1's out there. Just don't fall into the "I'm going to buy the next one that I see, no matter what!" trap.

If you take a close look at one of those old magazines, you will notice that they were individually-made; the technology did not yet exist for deep-drawing steel that thin. The magazines were made from steel-sheet stampings, bent into shape and brazed together. With such a system, it is not surprising at all that the odd one was a bit smaller than the rest and accidentally was fitted into a looser rifle.

When the rifles were built, magazines were fitted to them individually, precisely so they would make a good, solid fit.

What you were looking at, likely, was a rifle in which the magazine had been changed.

Better luck next time, friend! With eyes like yours, you WILL luck out sooner or later.