LEC MKI* RIC

[capt14k]

Recently acquired this and honestly don't know much about them. Numbers seem to be force matched. I'm hoping this is somewhat normal. These were used by Royal Irish Constabulary and I assume are .303 and this one has Enfield Rifling? Bore is pretty nice for such an old rifle. Any other info would be great such as are parts other than the screw missing, should any other parts be numbered matching, what is the correct bayonet, and approximate value?

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[smle addict]

No “force matching” there. That carbine is correct as they come, although the white fill was not standard. Your carbine began life as a magazine lee enfield carbine, Mk I*. Subsequently converted to the RIC pattern for constabulary use. You are correct:it has enfield rifling. Looks like the only missing thing is the brass screw which secures the stock disc. Prices vary on where you live, but $1200 to $1700 appears to be the auction norm. Ive seen lesser examples go for $950. You've got a beautiful one there, congratulations!

[capt14k]

No “force matching” there. That carbine is correct as they come, although the white fill was not standard. Your carbine began life as a magazine lee enfield carbine, Mk I*. Subsequently converted to the RIC pattern for constabulary use. You are correct:it has enfield rifling. Looks like the only missing thing is the brass screw which secures the stock disc. Prices vary on where you live, but $1200 to $1700 appears to be the auction norm. Ive seen lesser examples go for $950. You've got a beautiful one there, congratulations!

So the different suffix of A on the bolt vs B on the barrel and receiver is normal? The white should come off easy enough. I never add it to my Rifles but if someone else did first I usually leave it. Thank you for the info.

[smle addict]

My apologies: I was looking at your pics on my phone, and didn't catch the A versus B on the serials. No, that is not normal. I downloaded your pics and blew them up as best as I could on my laptop, and it still looks like the serial is original on the bolt with the A. It is curious, and I can only speculate that somewhere way back, a mistake was made where the A was struck instead of a B. Or... rifle 5132A had its bolt swapped with rifle 5132B. If you can provide a closer, higher resolution pic of the bolt, perhaps others can weigh in. If is smells like cold-blue, then you know it's been messed with.

Either way, I'd be happy to own it.

[capt14k]

My apologies: I was looking at your pics on my phone, and didn't catch the A versus B on the serials. No, that is not normal. I downloaded your pics and blew them up as best as I could on my laptop, and it still looks like the serial is original on the bolt with the A. It is curious, and I can only speculate that somewhere way back, a mistake was made where the A was struck instead of a B. Or... rifle 5139A had its bolt swapped with rifle 5132B. If you can provide a closer, higher resolution pic of the bolt, perhaps others can weigh in. If is smells like cold-blue, then you know it's been messed with.

Either way, I'd be happy to own it.

I will take a pic with my DSLR with magnifier attachment. I don't detect cold blue. Unfortunately I have on other rifles. If anything there is some light surface rust. I thought maybe renumbered, but they didn't change Suffix? Not sure if armourer would do that. I will also take a closer look myself.

[capt14k]

Bolt to me looks like the second digit which is a 1 was originally a 2. Rest looks like it was originally stamped that way.