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I've just seen a webpage describing scoped EAL survival rifles in use by the Canadian military, and the scope setup rang a bell. It had a Parker Hale A29 mount, RALS-3 rings and a Tasco 4X scope. Mine is a wartime Maltby with a Canadian use stamp, and the same scope base and scope setup. How common was this scope and base setup? Was mine a survival rifle possibly?
There appear to be two types of survival rifles possibly produced according to Mr. Skennerton: one for the RCAF which is purported to have had a Monte Carlo style stock with a Jostam rubber butt pad and a Schnabel fore end. There is also mention of EAL rifles which were restamped with "EAL XXXX" as a new serial number and had a Jostam rubber butt pad installed also. The EAL rifles also had CA stamped on the barrel's knox form. You can read more on p. 303 of The Lee Enfield Story but what I mentioned should be sufficient for you to make a determination.
The E.A.L. Rifle
There was an aircraft survival rifle (apparently) issued during ww2, then the EAL types.
If a survival rifle was issued during the war it was clearly not with a Tasco scope. So the answer to my question is pretty clear. It was the PH base, rings and Tasco scope combo that I was curious about, but I guess that would have been a common setup at some point in the 60s 70s or 80s.
Thanks all.
Which site was that?Quote:
Originally Posted by BurtonP
What you have there is a typical home sporterization of which there were tens if not hundreds of thousands in this country.
Nice site.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee Enfield
So the EAL's all have Jostam recoil pads?
From this photo it seems there was more than one butt length offered:The E.A.L. Rifle - Military Use
Overall, a "commercial blue" is a strange finish for a survival rifle presumably expected to be used in extreme situations. Would have made a lot more sense to have a handguard as well.
True, but that doesn't preclude someone from mounting a Tasco scope onto an EAL rifle at some later date. I never heard of the Tasco line of riflescopes until the mid-Eighties when a local gun store started stocking them.Quote:
Originally Posted by BurtonP
The E.A.L. Rifle - Scoped VariantsQuote:
Originally Posted by Surpmil
Personally I doubt such mounts and rings, or such scopes, would have ever been issued.
Have a look at the Bad-ace Tactical or Addley Precision bases.
The Pachmayer Low-Swing is still a good concept if one wants a removable scope and the ability to charger load.
All these bases however have the defect that they cannot be mechanically collimated, particularly for windage which is where it matters most.
And they all mount the scope too far to the rear for prone use, and much too far above the bore as well IMHO.
When I started doing the REL story, I found that the TASCO scope was the choice in that they had an unlimited no quibble warranty which was why they were used.
I've been doing a little research and the first question that came to mind was did EAL rifle and Tasco riflescope production run concurrently? EAL rifles appear to all have been made in the '40's, '50's, and '60's while the earliest appearance of Tasco rifle scopes appears to be in the '80's, at least from what I've read on several sites on the interweb. I bought my first 3 scoped rifles in 1976 which had a Bushnell Scopechief IV, a Leupold 2X7, and a Redfield on them. Friends and family were all avid hunters and the normal contemporary variety of rifle scopes were seen, but no Tascos. I researched the company Tasco and although started in the '50's it was to market telescopes, apparently Celestron. Does anyone have definitive proof that Tasco riflescopes were available during EAL rifle production?
I'd wonder if the scopes and mounts were marked in any way?
The piece presented here as some sort of government fitting has other holes in the receiver to the left of and presumably under the Parker Hale mount.
Then there are all the mostly/all(?) civilian scopes and mounts shown here: The E.A.L. Rifle - Factory Mods or Bubba?
The rifles were obviously liked for their light weight and small size by civilian owners; hence all the grafted on scopes etc. Wouldn't be surprising if one of the dealers who bought them in quantity from Crown Assets mounted scopes on some, or at least D&T'd them before sale.