My Fulton Regulated Mk3

[Kri4h]

Hi all
This is my first post here. I have read many of the articles in relation to LE and am extremely grateful to all the people who have contributed their wealth of knowledge. As I shoot at Bisley on a regular basis, I have heard of Fultons and their ‘Regulated’ service rifles, but as I understand, this is something that they used to do in the past. The Fulton Regulation is not done anymore as the business is under new management. Apparently, the records were also taken by the old proprietors. This I know, as I made a call to them just this week to check the provenance of my rifle.

Well, now to my own rifle. I purchased this last week from a dealer who had it from the estate of an old shooter who had passed on and who apparently had it since the 1970s.

BSA SMLE .303
Civilian target rifle. No military markings.
Magazine cutoff present.
Receiver marked BSA & Co


Markings on knox (top)
REGULATED BY FULTONS
Alf J Parker BIRM

On right side of knox
Crown above A2 above[0]
605D
28378 (serial no)

On left side of knox
Crown above BM

Barrel is standard military spec.
Top of barrel has:
AJP
Three crossed rifles

Barrel markings on left side
BM over Crown
.303
NITRO PROOF

Bolt handle number matches receiver.

Standard MK3 leaf sight. However, the windage screw has been blocked by the insertion of a steel plug from the top disabling the screw being winded.

Nice Walnut furniture. Slightly damaged with lots of dings. There are minor cracks in the trigger area, forearm and inside of the receiver area. There is AJP marking inside a circle just behind the nose cap of the lower stock.

Barrel bedded with cork bedding. Upper forearm wood is held by an extra tin band, which compresses a spring on the barrel.

Brass butt plate. No oil bottle.

The bore looks quite good with sharp rifling. However, there are some rust spots in the grooves as well in the leade.

I have yet to fire the rifle and until such time hold my peace. As soon as I can take some pictures and learn to paste them here, I will do so.

So gentlemen, I wait to hear from you with your opinions.

Regards,
Krish

Information

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[No4Mk1(T)]

OK sounds like a fairly standard commercial BSA No1MkIII done over for target shooting (Bisley /British NRA??) but hard to tell with out photos. Moderately unusual having gone through both AGP and Fulton’s. The cracking of the furniture around the receiver area could lead to accuracy issues. Beyond this I’m not sure much can be added as you seem to have most all the information available in your original post. Was there something in particular you wanted to know?

[Badger]

You might find this article by member RJW NZ in the Technical Articles for Milsurp Collectors and Re-loaders (click here) an interesting read ...

Fultons of Bisley; Enfield accuracy secrets revealed. (By RJW NZ) (click here)

Article Extract .....

Prestigious shooting contests held in the UK from the 1860’s were designed raise the standard of accuracy in the shooting fraternity and by assimilation, in the army. As the 1890's gave way to the 20th century one name began to stand out as an extraordinary shooter and as an insightful gunsmith; Fulton. An historic anecdote states that G E Fulton's alterations to Enfield Rifles improved their accuracy so much that the official bulls eyes on targets had to be reduced in size, twice. Would that we were all such good shots and could make a claim to fame like that!


(Click PIC to Enlarge)

Regards,
Doug

[Peter Laidler]

Talking of good shots and shooting Badger, I was on the ranges during the last days of the old L1A1 rifle with some REME technical bods doing their annual shooting practice. They weren't very good but with a bit of goodwill and by not patching the previous shooters holes up properly, most passed with full marks. One fat little Corporal (no name, no pack drill Cpl Bevans.......) really couldn't hit a cows, er....., bottom with a banjo but he persevered. We managed to zero his rifle - I say 'zeroed' in the loosest sense of the word.

A couple of shoots later, down went his target and up it came again with what looked like a whole sheet of white newspaper stuck onto the aiming mark. I shouted to the man on the telephone '.....ask them what the xxxx that is meant to mean on target 8.....' To which he shouted back '.........thay said just ask him to aim anywhere on the white sheet and they'll try and find some bullet holes!

No....., shooting wasn't really the forte of the technical blokes but he managed to pass after a fashion!

[Kri4h]

I managed to take some pictures of the rifle today. Hope they are clear enough. I am a bit concerned with the cracks in the furniture.

Attachment 18285
Attachment 18289

Muzzle end
Attachment 18286

Knox markings
Attachment 18284Attachment 18290

Cracked furniture
Attachment 18283Attachment 18287Attachment 18288Attachment 18291

Can anyone enlighten me as to the BSA, AJP markings on the knox. I assume the rifle was manufactured by BSA and some where along the line AJP marketed it??

ATB
Krish

[Badger]

Can anyone enlighten me as to the BSA, AJP markings on the knox. I assume the rifle was manufactured by BSA and some where along the line AJP marketed it??

ATB
Krish

AJP = Alfred J. Parker

Read this article in the MKL ...

Milsurps - A.J. Parker Parker Hale Sights

Regards,
Doug

[Thunderbox]

The barrel is a BSA commercial item - possibly a target grade barrel. I guess that AJ Parker has then gone and "ball-burnished" the barrel, thus the reason for their logo on the top. Check the muzzle - it might be engraved "AJP Ball Burnished" around the circumference of the crown.

I'm afraid that the forend appears to be quite badly damaged. That looks like a split running forward from the magazine well, and at the back a large chunk of the draws is missing, together with the metal reinforcing key. In fact, it looks like the entire recoil faces are missing. The photos are very small and dark, but I would guess that you'll need to repair and reinforce that forend before the rifle can be shot.

[RJW NZ]

Hi Kri4h,
Welcome to the forum. Nice rifle, and one well worth buying and shooting, I have one with very similar set up, and I'm a big fan of Fultons no1mk3's.

The most important comment to make is that Thunderbox is right in that some repairs are required. Its not shootable as is, but is quite fixable.

I think the first thing is if you paid for an unshootable rifle or if you paid for a rifle ready to go to the range. If the later then the dealer has missed something monumental in that the recoil section of the stock is missing, and if fired the way it is, odds are the stock will split left and right under recoil on the first shot, with a very good chance of the wood coming back at your eyes. Speaking from personnel experience, under recoil, a damaged fore end goes towards the shooter with some power, and just like yours already has, will split the fore end forward of the main screw in front of the magazine.
This split is an understood phenomenon, quite fixable, and there's an excellent repair commentary around here.

Because your rifle is not a common or garden variety then its repair time at the back end, not replace the fore end time. Working in your favor is that the wood has sheared along its grain, making the new section thats required a more simple matter of cleaning up the channel, shaping a bock and epoxying in place. We have experts here and useful info too. You'll learn a lot if you have access to another no1 mk3 fore end you can place side by side for comparisons.

As for the purchase etc, if you like the rifle, and also the dealer is a decent bloke, not a crook, and want to keep it but paid for a shooter, you could go back to the dealer and scare the bejeezus out of him by showing him the wood, and negotiating a better price. If you bought it more as a what you see is what you get, then you have a project that will take a little wood, glue, time and care and will be plenty satisfying when you're done. Fultons No1 mk3's have a decent value, I paid $750 and was happy about it. Joe Salter.com has one with a lot of photos for $1200? ish (look under british military rifles etc) UK prices I don't know.
A site with lots of enfield links to enfield everything is enfield resource.com.
Stay in contact here, you can always message me if you want to, and the other gents here are a smart and helpful bunch, with some real experts residing in the UK, I know they'll be helpful too. If you're not likely to do the repairs yourself and have trouble locating someone locally, you can keep me in mind as a back up plan.
cheers and welcome, ...

[Thunderbox]

Kri4h,

I see, belatedly, that you're in UK home counties.

No doubt about it - the dealer ought to take the rifle back, or at least recompense you for a decent rebuild.

If you want to know more, pm me and I can show you what work is involved in reconstructing a No1 forend. I'm probably not far around the M25 from you.

[Kri4h]

Thank you for your kind replies and shedding of more light, exactly what I wanted.

RJW NZ and Thunderbox, I did get a fair deal for the rifle. To be fair to the dealer, he allowed me to strip the rifle and have a good view of it before I made any decisions. And I made it based on the provenance and the markings, knowing quite well that it was a project rifle with a history

Doing the woodwork is not something I would do myself as I tend to destroy things when I touch any tool! This is something I would take to some competent woodworker who knows what he is doing and that is someone I need to find.

There is no hurry to shoot the rifle on my part until it’s ship shape. This rifle is something I want to work on and get shooting. Looks like a keeper to me.

BTW, Thunderbox, you have PM.

ATB,
Krish