Newest acquisition . . . 1941 Longbranch No. 4 Mk 1 Lee Enfield rifle.
1941 Longbranch No. 4 Mk 1 Lee Enfield rifle. Serial #OL36XX
Spotted this arm on a gun forum for sale section this past week. Purchased it in a private sale a couple of days ago. First off, I’m a huge fan of the Lee Enfield rifle and have owned several over the years. In my humble opinion, the Lee Enfield No 4 is the finest bolt action battle rifle ever manufactured. There happens to be a 1944 Savage built No. 4 Mk 1/3 FTR rifle in our home defensive arms locker along with the M1 Garand rifles. I'd stake my life on that Lee Enfield rifle.
Getting back to the early 1941 Longbranch No 4. The weapon is in complete condition with most of the correct to the year components intact. Serial number is in the OL36XX range. Original parts include 1941 dated barrel, 1300 yard micrometer rear sight, correct numbered bolt with round cocking knob. There is the proper safety and low wall fore end along with walnut wood.
As received, the wood had a lousy looking coat of what appeared to be old shellac. The mystery is, who and how was it applied as the rifle had not be adequately cleaned of cosmoline. The sticky goo was encrusted in all crevices and corners. Somebody apparently had been too lazy or stupid to respectfully clean that fine old Canadian military rifle.
Immediately disassembled the old Enfield into pieces. First thing was to haul the metal parts out to the garage where they were all sprayed with a good blast of WD40. Found that the stuff dissolves and wipes out old smelly cosmoline almost instantly. Let the soaking components sit on the work bench and melt away residual material.
Fetched some terry cloths and the wife’s heavy duty steam iron. Wrapped the stock wood into the cloth and soaked it with water. I find that steaming out dents in rifle stocks is a gratifying and relatively easy task.
After de-bumping the wood, the pieces were given a once over with fine steel wool. Having old shellac and grunge removed, the grain of the walnut became apparent. Treated the wood with Tung Oil and let the parts dry. A few hours later, the Longbranch No. 4 rifle was reassembled. Lubricated the weapon and installed a WW2 era canvas khaki Enfield sling and declared the rifle as cleaned and complete. The overall improvement in appearance is 300% better.
Will hang on to this 1941 Longbranch Enfield for awhile but will probably use the rifle as a trade item for something else needed.
Need to shoot some pictures of this rifle and will try to get them posted here in the next few days.
