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A little enfield secret to share
... just a little bit of rare enfield hunting trivia to add to the semi permanent state of tease ...
Here in New Zealand and around the world for those in the know, one of the desirable enfields to own are ones that have been owned by NZ Maori battalions. Maori warriors were known to do a little whittling and carve up the rifle stocks, lol, before they did the same on the enemy. If memory serves me they were stationed in North Africa at places like El Alamein and maybe at Monte Casino, I could be wrong here but if so someone will know the facts.
If we disregard all the logical reasons why deeply carved rifles might not have survived the war, unit armors putting them back to stock, commanding officers etc etc, never the less, some have shown up and arrived in the hands of collectors around the world since WW2.
These days there's quite a cultural revival here in NZ, similar to Native Americans in the USA, and enfield stocks with modern made Maori carving do show for sale occasionally, so the question is how does one sort a real one from a fake? The modern repros here are not being sold as Maori Battalion, but sooner or later a determined faker will try to.
Take a look at these pics. Ignore the patina, it could be recreated. The give away that this is probably the real thing is the shape of the carving on the left side.
Where ones cheek rests is a smooth part of the carving, and the reason is .... one shot with a freshly carved piece of wood would probably be like a bit of 100 grit on the skin and take ones cheek right off, so, enfields that were in combat use were smooth where ones cheek goes.
So, there ya go, its not definitive but it is one of those strong clues you add to the other subtle 'feels right' or 'feels wrong' clues that one looks for ...
as the Maori boys would say, lol, Happy hunting ...
