Lee-Metford Sparkbrook 1895 MKII* Rifle

I had a '94 Winchester carbine brought to me once that had a scab of deep rust at the muzzle beside the sight. I guess the hunter had poked an animal after it was down and not thought about it again. 20 years later...this was a major pit in an otherwise perfect finish. That took a minute to sort out. Another had blocked bushes with his hand as he went through and there were thorns in there. He took the rifle again by the balance and that's where the pits developed. Right where the blood was rubbed into the finish...

Blood leaves very distinctive pitting damage and will clean bluing off like naval jelly if left unattended. I have a '43 JP Sauer 98K with damage to what is an almost new condition rifle. The soldier to whom issued obviously didn't get very far.

I managed to get it all polished out and re-blued but it was a challenge. We had an folding stock AK...(Type 56) in Gagetown NB that had been picked up after the invasion of 1974. It had a nice coating of simple pinprick rust on one side from the soil it lay on and the other had the wormy lines of rust from the blood of it's owner. The whole affair had been long since scrubbed silver, but the rust pits remained. The barrel, was about perfect inside...

Chrome lined barrel!

Cleaning rods were withdrawn from issue in 1895. So it may not have had one. Later production( LE Mk1*) even had a nose cap with no hole for the rod.

Clearing rods (not cleaning) were withdrawn 1899 with the introduction of the Mk1* MLE

Sorry 5thBatt but the info I have is from Skennertons book that states that cleaning rods were withdrawn in 1895. Banned in 1899( MLE Mk1*). They went from cleaning rod to clearing rods when the pull through was issued.

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Originally Posted by enfieldshooter

Sorry 5thBatt but the info I have is from Skennertons book that states that cleaning rods were withdrawn in 1895. Banned in 1899( MLE Mk1*). They went from cleaning rod to clearing rods when the pull through was issued.

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Which of Ians books & the page number please, i have looked & can only find a date of 1889, the Mk1 MLE was introduced in Nov 1895 & it had the Clearing rod until the rod was withdrawn & the designation changed to Mk1* in 1899.

Ok, found a reference to "Cleaning" rods being withdrawn in 1895 on page 448 TLE in the Technical Details chapter about the CLLM MkII, i think either a typo on the date or because he has used the term cleaning rod & not clearing rod, it might be referring to the earlier cleaning rod.

5th Batt. I Don't want to get into a p***ing contest with this . After all I am only a beginner at this (40yrs) and my 4th post.:surrender: Skennerton .303 Magazine Lee-Metford and Magazine Lee-Enfield.
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