11/44 ROF(F) No5 MkI with MkII rear sight

[shmlnaaa]

Here's my latest acquisition and my second Enfield for my WW2 collection. I was unaware of this interesting and seemingly rare WW2 era rear sight variation until I acquired the this rifle last Saturday.

Information

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[Bindi2]

Why is that rifle cocked. Not a SAFE practice

[shmlnaaa]

Relax, it's stored with the bolt open and the three rules are always followed. It's just cocked for the pictures. The ammo in the pics never moves from the shelf either. Decocking would be more dangerous wouldn't it? Because, if a round did manage to find it's way into the rifle, the firing pin would then be resting on the primer!

[Bindi2]

Cycle the bolt several times to make sure your visual empty chamber mag look is actually empty close bolt holding trigger to the rear. Rifle now safe with less tension on the spring.
A cocked rifle is an indication that the rifle is ready to fire and no one other than the person who cocked the rifle knows if it is loaded or not. To take photos of a rifle with the bolt open shows that the rifle is safe and not ready to fire.
I store all my rifles with the bolt closed on an empty chamber. I dont take my bolts out for storage because that is one way to finish up with miss matched rifles. Which seems to be a big problem in the USA.

[browningautorifle]

Which seems to be a big problem in the USA.

I don't really think that's the case...

[shmlnaaa]

I've heard of people who aren't gun people store bolts separately (and then lose them after a few years!). I've never heard of a collector storing the bolt separately however. Obviously it's a bad idea.

I store the rifles bolt open so air can move through the bore. It helps prevent rust issues, especially if there's a risk of the rifle encountering humid air.

Checking the firearm is empty when you pick it up is firearms 101 IMO (even though MANY people can't seem to grasp the concept, same with muzzle awareness!). The rifle is cocked, safety off for the pictures because I generally just think gun look better in that condition for pictures. These pictures are admittedly not the best, but I don't have my good camera right now and the one I do have isn't focusing well for some reason. That doesn't mean I change much else for how I compose my photos however. I usually make an effort to try to get my pictures to look good, including setting up the rifle itself in a way I find pleasing.

[Bindi2]

I don't really think that's the case...

There are more reported miss matched bolts there than here by a long way.
I have nearly been shot by a person whose safety practices were bad and did not improve with tuition , just brainless and Dumb. ADs are no fun at anytime when you are the RO or trainer and even less fun on a returned firearms first outing on returning from a gunsmith. I consider all firearms to be loaded until i have cleared them and consider cocked ones even more dangerous.

[Paul S.]

There are more reported miss matched bolts there than here by a long way.
...

I would offer that the primary reason there are so many 'more reported miss matched bolts' in Yankland is that all the Enfields, excepting some of the Savage-made ones, have been imported and passed through heaven only knows how many sets of hands in the process. I'd wager not all of them care a dot if the bolts matched the rifles, and that to most of them regarding Enfields, 'one rifle, one bolt, one magazine' was the rule of the day.

Admittedly, leaving any weapon cocked is not good practice, but after all we're not in the same room with it so ...

[shmlnaaa]

Funny, no one in my last thread made this big of a deal about rifles being cocked in the pictures. Now you all seem to want to comment on it. In fact, this is the first time anyone has said anything at all about it since I started collecting years ago. Everyone else that I know that take pictures of guns also like to set them up as they look when ready to fire also. Maybe there's slightly different safety protocols from country to country, but I've only seen people care about the usual stuff like muzzle sweeping, not checking to see if a rifle's loaded or not, and lack of trigger discipline. I argue that decocking and dry firing is less safe than leaving a bolt cocked since the process WILL set of a cartridge in the chamber (or leave the rifle so that any bump will cause a negligent discharge). Anyway, it's not like I leave rifles sitting around with the bolts closed (just closed for staged pictures, when I'm arguably in almost direct control of the rifle still). They are kept open in storage for reasons I previously mentioned in other posts. This includes semi-auto rifles and rimfires. Dry firing rimfires can damage them, so it is NOT to be done. It's also pretty pointless and can add needless wear to center-fire self loaders. Better to use a method of handling that's universal across all batteries of arms.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=47555

Heh, there are even two cocked rifles in one picture in that link! I'll make a note to use the more safe practice of leaving rifles cocked for any pictures I ever post here in the future (will require no extra effort since almost all are taken that way). You guys will just have to deal with it. I'm not going to change how I do my safely composed pictures with my safely handled firearms.

I would offer that the primary reason there are so many 'more reported miss matched bolts' in Yankland is that all the Enfields, excepting some of the Savage-made ones, have been imported and passed through heaven only knows how many sets of hands in the process. I'd wager not all of them care a dot if the bolts matched the rifles, and that to most of them regarding Enfields, 'one rifle, one bolt, one magazine' was the rule of the day.

...

If a lot of the other English speaking countries didn't have the extensive imports from all over the world that the US has historically had, then I bet you're right. I'm sure a lot of countries or groups didn't care about matching parts so long as the rifle worked. The more rifles were used also increases the likelihood that a part needs to be replaced or is just arbitrarily swapped for whatever reason.

[Peter Laidler]

All the theorising can be alleviated by simply following the FIRST rule of firearms/weapons that hammered into you from day one. Nothing to do with bolt open or closed but DO NOT EVER, NEVER, EVER POINT WEAPON TOWARDS ANYONE, EVEN IN JEST. If everyone followed that simple rule, the rest would be academic!

I suppose the next one, a bit secondary, would be always make sure that before handing a weapon over, YOU check and clear it AND SO DOES HE!

Re the Mk2 No5 backsights, I seem to recall that5 they were a common feature on the wartime made No5's. They certainly featured on our old ones