I have recently purchased a 1918 lee enfield and am looking for help identifying manufacturer and where it would have served any help is greatly appreciated
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I have recently purchased a 1918 lee enfield and am looking for help identifying manufacturer and where it would have served any help is greatly appreciated
All the information you need to determine the manufacturer should be on the right-hand (assuming you're pointing the rifle away from you ;)) on the butt socket -- the steel piece of the receiver that divides the stock and forearm.
So...posting pics is the place to start. More is better here, don't be shy!
Look here for the maker. This one is a lithgow.
haveing trouble posting pictures .
Its a No1 MkIII* made at the Enfield factory in 1918.
okay thanks , as for where it would have served? reason im even bothering to look it up is im wondering if its worth the trouble of putting it back to original as its been sporterized unfortunately , so i dont want too waste time and money on some East indian Police rifle , ive heard they traveled around alot and for 1918 it would have had to be built early on enough to even make it too France for ww1 , were older builds redeployed in ww2? Any help is greatly apreciated. And thanks thunder box , i thought that plate was just saying build year and Model just shows you how much i know about these beaut's
Although you rifle was a 'late starter", it would almost certainly have seen service in France during WW1. There were ten months of war fighting in 1918, and a continued huge turnover of rifles - i.e. tens of thousands of salvaged or damaged rifles were being returned to Britain to be refurbished, and being replaced in the issue pool by new factory rifles..
Post-WW1, your rifle has had maybe 30-90 years of service, depending upon where it has been. It would have been somewhere in the Empire during the 1920s and 30s, then on active service for the whole of WW2.
If I had the rifle in my hands, I might be able to tell you more about it - based on my experience of looking at markings, or the type of wood forend fitted, or the numbering style, etc. As it is, unless there are some ownership marks on the receiver ring or the butt stock, you'll have to use your imagination! These rifles have been used in just about every country on earth, so the possibilities are endless.
One thing you can be sure of: it won't just have been an "Indian police rifle", if it ever was.
Thanks for the info rather reassuring , just didn't deal like throwing money at a piece of history that is of no importance to me . Cheers ]
Frankly that is not realistic. Other than on rare occasions, no one can know where a British Army rifle like yours has been. Over its career, your rifle may have been, for example, in the hands of: an Army Service Corps driver in France during the Great War, an Infantryman in Palestine between the wars, or a Royal Artillery Gunner at Tobruk during the Second World War. On the other hand it may have been in the armoury of a school Cadet Corps for most if not all of of its life. We certainly had identical rifles in our armoury at school.Quote:
Originally Posted by canadian1918
Oh, spoil sport! We all like to think our rifles were used in anger by TE Lawrence, or examined by Winston Churchill at the very least.;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Beerhunter
I recall being told that a year's dated production started the year before the date - explaining, for example, how long Lee Enfields are seen dated 1902 bearing Queen Victoria's crown (yet she died 22 January 1901), having been made in the production year 1901-1902. Is this actually true or false? If true, does anyone know when the 1918-dated production at Enfield would have started?
I must say the fit between the forend and the trigger guard and forward face of the butt socket looks much better than most SMLE'sQuote:
Originally Posted by canadian1918
When you say sporterized, do that mean the barrel has been shortened, or just that the forend wood has been shortened? More pictures would be welcomed, as usual.Quote:
Originally Posted by canadian1918