lee enfield metford rifle magazine HELP

HELP! I make ram rods

Need help with a magazine for a lee Enfield Metford rifle (MLM MK2). How long overall is the shortened loading rod, also just the length of the head. Does it have left or right hand threadlike the MK1? See pages 78 & 79 of "The Lee Enfield Book".

Also looking for the same information on the magazine for the Lee Enfield MK1 Carbine rod, overall length and the length of just the head? see page 82 of the above named book, it also has a shortened rod.

Hank Holm
Calgary Alberta Canada
Contact through PM feature

Good to see you here at last Hank, I have referred people to you indirectly for exactly that sort of thing as you always had a vast array at the gunshow...

My Magazine Lee Metfords Mk II take the same clearing rods as the MLE Rifles. Right hand thread. The MLM & MLE Carbines take a shortened version. Overall length 314 mm, Head 28mm. To make these rods I use WS 3/16, 26 TPI Taps and die.

A couple of decades ago, there was a bloke here in Brisbane, Queensland knocking out MLM etc clearing rods,

I have a few of them , in the white, floating around here somewhere.

Sadly I have never owned a MLM and the only LE (not SMLE) I ever owned was an Australian "range-pattern" one that was a dubious shooter at best.

Given, also that "cleaning" / "clearing" rods were officially "discontinued" fairly early in the scheme of things, "retro-fitting" one seems a bit odd. Having one, original or repro, is just a conversation thing.

If you own a Mk 1 MLM that has NEVER seen a unit / field / base workshop since manufacture, a rod MAY be appropriate......

Probably depends upon an individual collector's collecting emphasis: "As originally issued" or "As eventually obsolete" !