Lithgow SMLE sporter

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Originally Posted by henry r

sorry, i'm still learning all of this stuff.

MA = lithgow
OA = orange arsenal

WA? wagga wagga?
BA? bathurst?

what other places and markings are there for australian made lee enfields?

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I may be wrong here as, despite living in Australia my interest leans more towards the British & Indian made Lee-Enfields, but my understanding is that MA is "Manufacturer, Australia" (as you note, Lithgow) with OA being "Orange, Australia". Ian Skennerton's book makes reference to MAO for Orange as well.

There should be a series of stars with letters inside them stamped along parts of the action as well - these are inspection marks from various stages of the manufacturing process.

The "A" stands for "Annexe". When the big dispersal happened in WW2 the "main" factory at Lithgow was mainly building Bren and Vickers guns, but retained the major forging plant. The "Bren' building was started just before the war and is/was a much more "modern" structure than the original factory which had a very "late 19th century" look about it.

Almost every "minor" part was farmed out to these "annexes", usually using machinery from Lithgow to get started.

Given the complexity of some components (the locking bolt with its weird-form, multi-start LH thread, or all of those screws with "Enfield Form" threads, there would have been a lot of head-scratching if Lithgow were not involved.

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Originally Posted by Bruce_in_Oz

The "A" stands for "Annexe".

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All these years, and several spent right here. It took this long for me to find out that...tidbit.

Well the parts have arrived, so now to begin putting the rifle back together.

Well I've made some progress. Still need to do some fitting on the top front handguard.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3024-1.jpg

Got everything reattached except the butt plate. For now I'm just planning on coats of RLO to finish the wood.

Pictures from our backyard with natural sunlight.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3029-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3026-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3025-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3028-1.jpg
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...IMG_3027-1.jpg

Don't forget when fitting the butt plate that there IS a correct way to fit one! First make sure that it fits fairly evenly over the rear face of the butt with no high spots and no wobble. Then make sure that there is an even gap around the edge where the wood butt must over hang the edge of the butt plate and not the other way round. About 1/16th to 3/32 or so would be perfect

Totaled up the costs of the parts and Shipping and that came to 220 USD. Now to haul it to the range and see what it will do.

The rifle and I spent several hours at the range this afternoon.
For August in Colorado it was freakishly cool with temperature on the range about 55 Fahrenheit or 13 Celsius. Ammunition was HXP 69 or 76. The bad news was I left my target stand at home so while I was routinely hitting the steel targets and 100 to 140 yards there no paper targets to share with you all.:o

AF Jon:

I'll bite.

I know about "prairie schooners" and "prairie oysters", but what is this "prairie submarine" you commanded?