Lee Enfield Carbine

I recently obtained my first Lee Enfield Carbine. When a friend originally mentioned he has an Enfield Carbine I thought he was talking on a No. 5, but he said it is a very early one and Lee Enfield made. Then I thought he has one of the RIC carbines, but finally was pretty amazed that in fact he had one of the New Zealand Lee Enfield Carbines.

Research turned out quite difficult on these because when you use Google for the search term "Enfield Carbine" everything else will turn up, but not the NZ LEC! The first search result that indeed treated this rifle said this would be one of the rarest Enfield rifles one could find. As a result I thought if I manage to get a deal done I'd post pictures here for reference.

While far from mint the rifle nevertheless has this "been there - done that" look. It has a mismatching but correct bolt, it has the NZ markings and with the rifle serial of 904 it is an early one as well. The rear sight looks a bit weird since it looks "bent", not sure if this was the case or if I need to replace it? Any suggestions to what kind of sling swivel the stock at the rear had additionally attached? Remaining white paint on the butt stock makes me wonder if this rifle might once had been in India, since I remember this white paint on the stock from Indian Ross Rifles.


Edit: re-added pictures that were lost on 17.05.2022



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Missing three pictures that I couldn't attach to the previous post.

Carbines are nice. Can you make out the makers mark stamp on the right side of the butt stock just to the right of where the stock disk would have been?

It looks as though someone removed the original rear sling swivel and replaced it with an english sporter eye-swivel at some point, now both removed.

This was the swivel on my one

Not easy to make out the roundel, but you can see the rest of it in my pictures. I thought there were anyway only Enfield roundels - or are there differences?

Simon, funny to see mine is not the only one where they added swivels! Thanks for the picture!

Congratulations on a pretty carbine! The NZ LEC was my introduction to the cavalry carbines as well. Handy little rifles!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Promo

Not easy to make out the roundel, but you can see the rest of it in my pictures. I thought there were anyway only Enfield roundels - or are there differences?

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Enfield, BSA&M/BSA, and LSA all used their own roundel. The acceptance stamp was normally in the centre.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Promo

Not easy to make out the roundel, but you can see the rest of it in my pictures. I thought there were anyway only Enfield roundels - or are there differences?

Simon, funny to see mine is not the only one where they added swivels! Thanks for the picture!

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Definitely looks like an RSAF Enfield roundel to me. The "Enf" is pretty visible in the bottome left quadrant. The "ield" looks to be visible through the paint, though somewhat obscured.

I see no DP markings. Nice! I've heard of examples without DP markings, but every one I've seen (one in the flesh, and others on GunBroker) had DP markings.

One of these carbines came up for sale last year at a gun auction near me. I handled and inspected the carbine on their inspection day. I don't remember the sight being bent like the one in your pictures. Since that is the only one of these carbines I've seen in the flesh, I'll defer to others.

Excellent find Georg, a superb example of a very rare carbine!

Love to have her in my collection!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Simon P

This was the swivel on my one

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Is that the same swivel as the examples found on Martini Carbines Simon? Im sure my AC11 Carbine swivel is identical to that....