Need Help with SMLE carbine that Never Was
In the 50's and 60's a company called Golden State Arms in California put together and sold rifles built from surplus WWI & WWII parts. Some were pretty well done and had a following like their "Santa Barbara" Mausers. Some were not so well done as I recently discovered.
I picked up (for cheap) a gun show rifle that at 1st blush looked like the No. 6 jungle carbine that the Australians were considering building towards the end of WW II. Basically a No. 5 jungle carbine using the No. 1 MK III action since they were too frugal to pay the queen for the royalties asked to allow them to produce the No. 4 action. It's stamped Golden State Arms and I later found that it was a briefly cataloged item.
They had one big problem, the No. 5 type short barrels used (bell flash hider and all) did not have room for a rear sight. As you know the old WW I No.1 MKIII guns put the rear sight base on the barrel. The action had a hefty charger bridge but no provision for a rear sight.
Not to worry Golden State solved the problem by milling a slot top dead center in the charger bridge destroying it's use for that purpose and then drilled a hole across the slot allowing a threaded rod to be staked in across the slot they had milled in the charger bridge. On this they mounted a simple L style flip sight that could be screwed on the threaded rod to get some windage control but make no real provision for elevation other than the flip sight wings. The sight was not tightly fitted to the threaded road and was prone to flop willy nilly and has nothing to keep an arm with an aperture ready for use.
I was fairly unhappy about that. An old Malaysian veteran No. 5 was my 1st real centerfire rifle. It was rough but I still have a soft spot for them.
I made one of those beginners mistakes now that I look back on it but I just couldn't relegate the gun to a wall hanger. I took it to one of our more reputable local gunsmiths and asked him to mill off the charger bridge completely, install a Williams rear aperture sight just in front of the safety and give it a military quality refinish. He did and it's a splendid looking little rifle. Golden State did an excellent job fabricating a No. 5 butt stock with recoil put and even made a few improvements like adding ventilation ports on the wooden barrel cover.
Just before I picked it up I asked the gunsmith to check the carbine for headspace. The unspeakable beast eats field gauges like popcorn. I should of course have asked this be done before spending money on modifications. The gunsmith assumed that I had done this or fired the piece (glad I didn't now) before bringing it to him. I understand that the headspace on the No.1 MKIII action could be corrected by changing out the end of the bolt for different size components.
Does anyone out there know a source for these parts and or a knowledgeable SMLE gunsmith that could help put me and this poor mongrel carbine out of our misery?
Many thanks.
