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This sold last night on our local online auction site.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Lis...3034&archive=1
Anyone want to give their views on this one? Looks to be a 1918 manufactured rifle. I'm curous about the range drum. Seems to go up to 1100 yards (I thought 600yds was the standard?)
Listing photos attached for future reference.
Yes, the range drum markings are unusual. I've never seen one graduated up to 1100 before. As you say, 600 is the standard. The rifle has been made up, although in my estimation, the parts are all genuine. The 5 BA screws are wrong (cheese heads were used, but the tops were slightly rounded, resembling the shape of a pork pie in section!). These look to have been inserted relatively recently & have been left flat topped. There is also evidence of milling of the receiver side wall to produce a suitable mating surface for the base. The originals were hand scraped & filed to suit. That may sound counter-intuitive, but I've seen a few rifles now over the years with the bases removed & all were done like this. And of course, a 1918 dated rifle immediately puts one on one's guard......
The rifle certainly has some components that are not WWI vintage (rear handguard is a Lithgow WW2 made item and the rear leaf sight cap is one of the later styles and not the more common WW1 rectangular styled one) which indicate that it is a rifle that saw service during that later period or had the components replaced at a later date. My money is on a project rifle rather than an original rifle which was re-united with a mis-matched scope.