Saved 1953 lithgow

This rifle was dismantled to the last screw to be listed on ebay. In fact some of it was. After initially winning some auctions and 6 months of haggling with this fool as well as waiting for Queensland Weapons licencing to issue the permit, it's a rifle again. The only part I was unable to secure was the rear handgaurd. That's unfortunate because it was dated 54 but it had already been auctioned off. Note how he has absolutely brutalized the action and barrel. Nearly every part is 50's stamped as is the case with these.
Was it worth the money? No, but was it worth saving the gun? Absolutely.

Well done. This is the first I've seen. The thing with the action, for those that don't know how to remove them was to beat it at the barrel ring until it unscrewed. Sad, but you have it now.

Christ it makes me wince with pain when you see that sort of job done. Use correct tools correctly iwas told, which for that job i have!! Anyway nice to see a 53 back in one piece, must have cost you a fortune to but it that way Demo.
Why did he strip it to sell it?
Cheers
NED

It's not the usual damage, of a twisted receiver with Stilson's wrench marks and nice clean chewed up bench vice indentations on the barrel, what's the guy done to that? It looks like he's been at it with a ball pein hammer, how would that help anyway?

That stretches the metal so it unscrews almost by hand.

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Originally Posted by trooper554877

Christ it makes me wince with pain when you see that sort of job done. Use correct tools correctly iwas told, which for that job i have!! Anyway nice to see a 53 back in one piece, must have cost you a fortune to but it that way Demo.
Why did he strip it to sell it?
Cheers
NED

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Ned that's what this bloke does. He breaks up good rifles all the time to sell off the parts. I only new about this one because a mate was bidding on some 50's dated parts so out of curiosity I contacted the seller and he unashamedly confirmed that he had broken up a 1953 lithgow. I had to persuade him to sell me what parts he had left while at the same time win the parts already listed. The prick sent me a price list with every single individual part itemized. I probably wanted to save this gun more than I actually wanted to own it, if that makes any sense.

Here's a little 53 group shot.

Very greedy Demo...but very nice.

I noticed the second one from the top has the old yello paint on it, i lost count how many of those i saw at horsely park gun shop back in the late eighties where i was priveledged to be able to walk around in behind the counter with a good freind who had freedom of movement in there. The amount of smles they had was amazing, where for $150 or even less you could pick the eyes out of them. Then somebody had a brilliant idea of stripping the rifles down and throwing them in a big bucket to sell as parts. The way they stripped the stock from the action was to leave the front stock on whilst turning your bolt in the butt which then split or damaged the front timber. Or they would manage to get the parts off and put a synthetic stock on the bloody thing. Unfortunately there was only so many of those poor little orphaned rifles that i could give a home to at the time!!
Regards and alas
Fergs

Demo, you're a gold plated star in my book, good onya to going the extra mile there, it was worth every bit of effort, and the end result a credit to you.

I see old mate in QLD is selling bits off martini's and LLE's at the moment. Where is this other bloke from?

Demo, congratulations on rescuing a rifle intended to be lost forever to the short sighted money makers. The other point is that people a buying these bits and pieces to make what? Mismatched crap, that they think are worthy to put on a collection? Keep up the good work!

Well done.
It never ceases to amaze me what people do with these historical firearms.
A rifle that has seen no end of misery, hardship, God knows what else only to be broken up and sold off just to make a quick buck. It really chaps my a**. I congratulate you on your endeavour.

Demo,

What you have doen to restore these '53's to their former glory is absolutely oustanding.

I know what dramas you went through to achieve this and as RJW NZ has said, you really deserve a medal for bringing these beauties 'back from the brink'.

Sad thing is that even if the person you got these guns / parts from saw the outcome, it would make no difference, as he uses the ebay revenue to supplement his retirement funds.

Or drug funds, surely no one of sane mind can be so stupid.
The question I ask myself is, are these people licenced to have this firearm , and if not why can't we bring them to heel?

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Originally Posted by tuffbj70

Demo, congratulations on rescuing a rifle intended to be lost forever to the short sighted money makers. The other point is that people a buying these bits and pieces to make what? Mismatched crap, that they think are worthy to put on a collection? Keep up the good work!

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Not necessarily. Many people search specifically for parts because they are refurbishing a rifle and want to make it correct. Ask Peter how much the armorers cared about mismatching when putting rifles back together so someone could go off to war with it, which of course is their actual purpose. Use of the phrase "mismatched crap" is a luxury afforded to those of us who don't have to fight and die for our country and who can collect rifles simply because others did.

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Originally Posted by newcastle

Not necessarily. Many people search specifically for parts because they are refurbishing a rifle and want to make it correct. Ask Peter how much the armorers cared about mismatching when putting rifles back together so someone could go off to war with it, which of course is their actual purpose. Use of the phrase "mismatched crap" is a luxury afforded to those of us who don't have to fight and die for our country and who can collect rifles simply because others did.

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I am meaning no disrespect to our forfarthers, who served to maitain our respective counties. But the term 'mismatched crap' I see all the time.

I mainly collect No 1 Mk3 Lithgows and 90% are matching. I also have a several no 4's as well and understand what peter is discussing about armourers getting rifles in and out asap, as well as wartime production in Britain. But what I can't stand is people pushing rifles especially Lithgows who have been made from parts cobbled together from other rifles as true and correct.