C No. 7 Mk. I .22" riflle serial numbers
The following C No. 7 Mk. I Lee-Enfield .22" rifles were, and may still be, on issue to 583 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Cadets in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada as of 2001-02-22. I was the Deputy Commanding Officer, was a Range Officer and was responsible for the inventory of the firearms.
I painted rack numbers on the rifle butts, in white paint as I recall, numbers 1 to 12. Our inventory location was AA7113.
1 ---- 1L5699
2 ---- 1L9242
3 ---- 1L3750
4 ---- 1L9790
5 ---- 1L9309
6 --- 20L0872
7 --- 20L557 NOT SERVICEABLE - "Azimuth screw N/S. No mag."
8 --- 20L0871
9 --- 20L450
10 -- 20L659
11 -- 20L575
12 -- 20L586
These numbers are EXACTLY AS STAMPED ON THE RIFLES. For all twelve rifles listed above, the serial numbers matched (rifle and bolt).
We did not have the transit chests for these by the way.
Sadly there was a move to using pellet guns instead of the .22" rifles. The pellet guns were junk and one that I picked up had the pot-metal rear sight fall off!
There was a funny side to the rifle model number. At the time, Canadian Forces' service rifle was the C7 in 5.56mm, a full automatic Canadian made version of the M16 rifle. Headquarters sent us a list of rifles held by us, requesting "Quarterly Stocktaking of Small Arms." 1 page listed the 12 CNo7 Mk. I rifles that we held. There was another page attached listing a batch of C7 rifles! My response to HQ was to ask "When may we expect the delivery of the C7 5.56mm full automatic assault rifles for the 583 Sqn Royal Canadian Air Cadets?" ;)
The stocktaking list consisted of "RIFLECAL22WE" (presumably decoding as Rifle, calibre 22, with equipment.) Note that they did NOT identify the rifles by their official model number! Believe it or not, the manufacturing year is officially recorded for ALL of them as 1986! :confused: This appears to be the date the Department of National Defence computer records were created, i.e. "DATE INTO = 26JAN86" These rifles were actually made in the mid-1940s and the very early 1950s.
The NATO stock number (NSN) for these C. No. 7 Mk. I rifles is 1005-21-103-1203.
Interestingly I found one bolt was mismatched to a rifle. Knowing that the rifles held by the army cadets and the air cadets were sometimes lent to the other unit, I investigated and found that the local Army Cadet unit had that rifle, we had their bolt and they had our bolt. The serial numbers were very close, only differing in the last two digits. I corrected the error ASAP.
The cadets also used these rifles for drill. At the Annual Inspection a cadet drill team, including my daughter who was a Cadet Sergeant, performed superbly. I insisted that they use proper Lee-Enfield drill :D instead of the FN C1A1 rifle drill which had foolishly been used because that was the "modern way" - except that these rifles do no have a pistol grip and it was crazy and dangerous to expect cadets to hold that weight with a couple of fingers through the trigger guard! I photocopied original Canadian Army Drill Manuals covering the Lee-Enfield rifle for their use. The cadets also used these rifles for Remembrance Day sentry duty at the cenotaph and as target rifles.
An order came out prohibiting the cadets from using these rifles for drill. :confused: When I asked why, a senior officer at Headquarters said "Because little Suzie might drop it on her foot." Ironically my daughter is named Suzie, was a Sergeant, and she handled the rifle far better than this Major could have! As a result of the written orders that the cadets were NOT allowed to do ANY RIFLE DRILL, we declined a very prominent request for cadets for Remembrance Day. Our polite refusal included copies of two official HQ documents banning the cadets from performing ANY rifle drill. I explained to the group that had requested our services that this ban left us two only options:
1. Cadet without rifle could march to the Cenotaph, take post without rifle and stand at attention. An officer could then come out and place a rifle in his/her right hand. The cadet would not be permitted to reverse arms or stand at ease etc. as those were drill movements and were now banned. The officer would retrieve the rifle at the end of the service and then the cadet could march away.
2. Cadet with rifle could saunter up to the cenotaph, dragging his or her rifle, then stand at attention. Again they could not reverse arms etc. At the end of the service the cadet could saunter off dragging the rifle (thus avoiding any drill movements.)
I stated, with my CO's full agreement, that this would be an insult to the veterans, to the war dead and degrading for the cadets (and their officers!). The **** hit the fan as we had hoped and HQ said that they did not mean to exclude the annual November 11th Remembrance Day and the rehearsals for this! Their written orders and notification letter however were unambiguous. We replied that their written orders CLEARLY stated the cadets could perform NO DRILL, PERIOD - no ifs ands or buts. My CO and I each had our Canadian Forces Decoration (long service medals for 12 years of service by then) so being appalled at the idiocy of Headquarters (surely not a new feeling in the military!) figured we had a point to make. Besides, we were reservists there to lead the cadets, and did not give a damn about protecting our assess (aka careers) as is too often the case in the regular military.
