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Hello,
I'm currently looking at buying a Lee Enfield rifle from someone. He says it's a M47C that has been FTR in 1948 and then converted to a L8 configuration. The L8 has then been converted to a L42A1 configuration. Does anyone has more information on that conversion ? I already submitted a search to Simon on the Serial number service thread.
I have some on the pictures he sent me and more is actually on the way at my request (including the barrel and the bolt).
What do you guys think ?
What do I think? I won't sit on the fence. I think that it's about as straight as a corkscrew. I won't bore you by saying anything else about it..............
Love the screw staking on the front pad.
Well, I know that it didn't look completely correct, thus the reason why I'm looking for the vast knowledge of people on this forum.
What could this rifle be then ? Could that be a L42 reproduction that someone tried to make with a L8 ? Or it looks like more some No4 Mk1 that someone tried to modified with a number of 7.62mm parts ?
I only know that the mag seems to be a correct 7.62mm mag, but I'm not sure about the other markings. I'm still waiting for picture of the bolt and I also asked for to see the barrel without the upper handguard.
An accumulation of parts assembled to a very broad spec?Quote:
Originally Posted by Noble_Guardian
It looks to me like a sporterised ten-a-penny BSA No4 that someone has badly made into a fake No4T. He's then obtained No4 profiled 7.62mm barrel and screwed it on. Together with a 7.62mm magazine. Put a fake bracket on it and said that it's an L8. What are you waiting for pictures of the bolt for. It's a standard No4 bolt that's fitted to the correct rifle.
I'm sure that there are already some experts analysing the pictures but you really don't need to be told anything else. It's as straight as a corkscrew is all you need to know
Well, thank you very much for the information. I don't really know anything about LE rifle so I'm learning !!
Even if it doesn't have collector value, it can still be used as a decent shooter in 7.62mm, right ?
Right............. No, wrong! As a shooter, probably OK but as a shooter for putting holes accurately into targets it'll be crap. Just my experience in that format. Sorry to bge the bringer of bad news and all that!
No worries !! I prefer to learn the blunt truth before buying the rifle than after !!
I suppose it could be a genuine TR rifle that was unconverted until someone got at it, but wasn't the "TR" usually struck through later on unconverted rifles?
Peter will correct me if I'm wrong on this nut seem to remember that the seminal work on this subject says that all L42s were converted from No.4Ts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noble_Guardian
Yep, all converted from existing No4T's - of which this one ain't.
Not to mention the (F)FTR '48 markings on the body side. I could be wrong but I don't think No.4T rifles went through FTR at Fazakerley post WWII. Someone in the know correct me if I'm wrong please. I've sure never seen one sporting those markings and I've had over a hundred through here in the past 21 years.
On the subject of No4T' FTR's, my father was a National Service armourer 1954 to 56 and he can remember as a lowly NS conscript, getting the very grubby job of removing stored No4T's from their crates after they were delivered on a convoy of army lorries, cleaning off the cosmoline, checking them over and test firing them, a very large quantity of 4T's and a very dirty job!
This stuck in his mind because of the sheer number of them and the bloody cosmoline removal....on the job for weeks! None of these had been FTR'd (that he could recall) and they had apparently been quickly checked over and stored after WW2.
I would guess they were replacing examples that were worn out and kept in service post 1945...
He did say that a small number were condemned and striped for parts, scopes etc
A very long time ago now, but it does also add some additional credence that 4T's never went through the massive post war FTR program.
It is on record that they did go through the FTR system at Enfield. And if at Enfield, then Fazakerley would seem natural too! But there wouldn't be any facility to examine/repair/rebuild telescopes at Faz whereas there would at Enfield because the large Optical workshop/facility was close by at the big Base Workshop at Woolwich But that said, I don't recall seeing the FTR marks. But does anyone know what FTR at Enfield marks on a No4 look like?
Evening Peter, you would have thought that the FTR markings would be standardised across the factories, obviously not though!
Are not the Weedon "Star" markings on the bottom wrist of No4T rifles an indication of (at least) examination and upgrade to current spec (whatever that might have been)?Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Laidler
Markings
The Enfield FTR markings I've observed are just a small, (1/8"?), F.T.R. and stamped on the left side of the butt socket just below the serial number of the rifle.
As I mentioned in the previous thread which you refer to in thread 17, that 6 pointed star doesn't feature as a Weedon Repair mark in the little markings book that was available to Armourers and quartermasters until the 70's............
I've got a number of brand new unissued Sykes manufactured wartime walnut butts that bear the star marking, so I don't think it indicates FTR although I don't know what it does indicate on a brand new unused butt! Interestingly some SL butts bear it & some, otherwise identical, don't.