Unusual Lee-Enfield Magazine

[Sentryduty]

I have had this magazine in my collection for a number of years and am not sure quite what it belongs to.

It came as part of a few spares with a sporter No1 Mk1*** my father purchased privately in the mid-1990's. It sort of held .303 rounds but not very well and it was never really used.

When it came into my possession I examined it and found no makers marks or stampes and realized the follower looked more like a .22 cal feed ramp.

I think this is a non-issue magazine and may be intended for a small bore rifle. Based on the photos does anyone have an better ideas?




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[smlemk111]

Although the mag isn't marked .22 the follower is for a no7 Canadian trainer

[Sentryduty]

That is quite interesting, I remember all of the No.7 issued to cadets during my time had a regular .303 follower which we removed during actual range time.

The empty magazine body would act as a brass collector. In hindsight this ramped follower would have made loading so much easier.

[CINDERS]

We also had a mag without the follower to catch the .22 cases made loading the rounds a bit fiddly having gumby fingers, we actually had a 25 yard range in the High school grounds and fired through what I think was called a mosman tube which stopped you shooting outside or above the sleeper stops. No chance of that happening now days as that was only 1.5 klms from the center of Perth city in West Au.

[Flying10uk]

The .22 rifles which we used in the cadets were the single shot no magazine Le-Enfields, No8 rifles I believe. I remember being instructed, in a no uncertain manner, to always push the round firmly into the breech before closing the bolt and not, on any account, to let the round be pushed in by the closing of the bolt as I had got into the habit of doing. I was told that some-one had had a round "blow-up" in their face by trying to chamber a round by pushing it into the breech with the bolt.

[rgg_7]

You have a Canadian C No7 follower in a standard No4 mag housing. On the CNo7 mag body the feed lips are a different configuration than the No4.
Sure somebody will post a picture to confirm my info. Ron (Canada).

[CODFan]

The CNo7 is a single shot only. The 22 magazine platform is a loading guide while the magazine body captures spent casings.

Sometimes the magazine body is marked 22 and often not marked at all.

Milsurps Knowledge Library - 1944 C No.7 .22 Caliber Lee-Enfield Training Rifle

[Sentryduty]

Seems like we've solved it! The main thing that threw me off was based on my cadet experience in Camp Argonaut (CFB Gagetown) where we had probably 10-15 of these rifles on the summer ranges.
The cadet use rifles were all Long Branch CNo.7, postwar 1940's production if I remember right, and all had the magazine body stamped with "22" but were fitted with .303 magazine followers. I wonder if that was a result of short supply, or a matter of parts breakages from repeated strip and assemble drills for over decades at the hands of teenage cadets. I do know part of our strip and assemble was to remove the magazine follower and spring every single time, that was bound to take a toll and incur broken springs.

For some reason it had never occurred to me that I may have had a .22 cal follower in a No.4 body, you look at something for decades and it just doesn't click.

Now who wants to sell me a rifle to go with my magazine? LOL.