A .22 Short Rifle Mk II... found in a creek

[louthepou]

Good day!

Well, i haven't posted in quite a while; but this one sure deserves to be shared with a group of fine folks.

An acquaintance has trusted me with doing a bit of work on this not-too-common Lee Enfield. It was found, I am not kidding, in a creek in Ontario. Apparently there was a training air base not too far from this creek; so, it may explain why a Lee Enfield .22 trainer was found in this place.

Strangely enough, it's not as bad as one would think after spending God knows how many years under water.

My goal here will be to do as little as possible to the rifle, but to make sure rust is dealt with. I will clean the bore. Yes the intention is to make it fire again... There's even rifling in the bore.

From what I know (that's very little) about this particular variation of .22 trainer, the rear handguard is wrong (it's a no1mk3-like handguard), and there should have been a rear sight guard there too. Rear sight leaf is non-matching, but the bolt does match the receiver.

I'm simply amazed.

Ok, I'll document the progress in the Restorer's Corner, here's hoping screws will cooperate. Anxious to see how bad (or nice) the metal is under the wood!

lou

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[browningautorifle]

Yup, I'd have taken it too Lou. This should be interesting.

[green]

And Princess Elisabeth's favourite 22 target rifle.

[painter777]

Hello Lou,
I don't believe we've met...
I'm amazed at how well it held up. Maybe that good cold water ?? Like some of the Ship Wrecks in our Great Lakes.

Any chance you may consider trying electrolysis on it?
I look forward to following the progress in the Restorer's Corner
Really cool......... THX for sharing it and Good Luck

Cheers,
Charlie-Painter777

[Brian Dick]

I've had quite a few of the Sht. Mk.II trainers over the years. The replacement handguard isn't uncommon. I think the originals were lost or broken regularly.

[painter777]

Can you imagine pulling that out of a creek ?
I still rejoice over finding a grime/dis-colored unopened 6 pack of Strohs beer while fishing a drop off near a shoal, back before I was of legal age to drink. The glint of shine I seen had me thinking I'd found a nice torn free fishing lure. Upon recovery we dashed to a small Isle and polished those cans so clean, you'd of thought they were just bought from the store.
Sorry........ ole memory rant, but they sure tasted good !

Some say that Cedar stained waters can preserve wood for a long time because of the high levels of Tannin, the stuff that gives small creeks and rivers that look like Tea. And how it can repel insects, like boring beetles...etc

CH-P777

[CINDERS]

Nice repair to the mag well area, I reckon its sunk into the silt which has acted like peat keeping the rust at bay you only have to watch some Russian vids on them recovering WWII tanks and flyers bodies from such stuff and very well preserved they are even the bodies.

[BruceHMX]

That is beyond crazy looks like a time capsule. The history of how it got there would be amazing. Either a young cadet lost it on a field exercise. Or a couple of salty NCO's after a hard day went out to pound a few pints and plink a few rounds of .22. At the end of it they were like these are being phased out any way and in a haze slung it into the creek.

[painter777]

in a creek in Ontario

So it had to of been frozen for + or - 6 months of the year. Submerged would have limited the rust build up... Correct ?
Similar to Cinders statements about the Russian finds, I just read about a 700,000 year old horse found in the perma frost in the Yukon. They were able to pull good DNA from it because of it's very limited level of decay.
Really interesting.... This Mk II will be one that many of us will be sure to follow.
No pressure Lou...

Cheers
Charlie-P777

[Doco overboard]

Amazing something could be under for so long. It appears to have an allen screw through the lower band that looks like it was almost put there yesterday.