SMLE mounted troop rifle

[superbee]

Has anybody seen one of these before??

EFD Rifles - The Enfield Specialists

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[BC1]

That's a first time for me, quite interesting and most definately rare!

[browningautorifle]

Very neat rifle. Hope it turns out to be real...we've not had one of those appear around here before.

[bigduke6]

Very neat rifle. Hope it turns out to be real...we've not had one of those appear around here before.

It has been here before Jim, when I had it a few years back, but I returned it ( was another dealer back then), as it was sale or return.......

[jmoore]

It has been here before Jim, when I had it a few years back, but I returned it ( was another dealer back then), as it was sale or return.......

This thread?: (ETA: one of these links works but isn't fancy, the other doesn't seem to load correctly right now, but did when the search was done.)

SMLE Yeomanry or Light Horse conversion

[Thunderbox]

It has been here before Jim, when I had it a few years back, but I returned it ( was another dealer back then), as it was sale or return.......

Didn't it get pulled to bits in the forums back then? Indian nosecap, bits from several rifles, non-factory workmanship, copy of local sling bar mod, odd looking stamps, etc.

IIRC it was another example of a rare or imagined rifle that had been .. er ... recreated by an individual for his own collection. Specimens from that collection are now turning up with all sorts of "provenance" attached.



IIRC the nosecap is Indian. I have several of them in one of my spares boxes (unfortunately currently in storage). They appear factory made, not converted or refinished. The metal behind the missing bayonet boss is solid. Not much known about them, but possibly originally intended for prison muskets or similar.

[bigduke6]

Didn't it get pulled to bits in the forums back then? Indian nosecap, bits from several rifles, non-factory workmanship, copy of local sling bar mod, odd looking stamps, etc.

IIRC it was another example of a rare or imagined rifle that had been .. er ... recreated by an individual for his own collection. Specimens from that collection are now turning up with all sorts of "provenance" attached.



IIRC the nosecap is Indian. I have several of them in one of my spares boxes (unfortunately currently in storage). They appear factory made, not converted or refinished. The metal behind the missing bayonet boss is solid. Not much known about them, but possibly originally intended for prison muskets or similar.

It certainly did TB, and with that I returned it ( it was up North at the time) from the collection of the late Chris Barber...........

Jmoore that's the thread, SMLE Yeomanry or Light Horse conversion.

I received a email some years back regarding the rifle, someone had purchased it from who I returned it too, I gave him all the info I had and suggested to him to return it, he was in the mind set it was Kosher and said he had it confirmed from the IWM and others !!!! It has had a touch up since it was in my hands. I,ll dig out my pics.

[Maxwell Smart]

I'd suggest that the magazine is not original, and is considerably younger than the rifle action.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The magazine looks like one from a No4.

Muzzle end oddities:

1. Very odd "crown" on the barrel,

2. Something odd about the seating of the "Screw, Front",

3. There appears to be something like a tiny "Lithgow" star in the front of the left sight-protector "ear". What is that about?

4. The surface finish on the "different" front-end is quite at odds with the rest of the nose-cap: it looks to be ground, but not blasted / "pickled".

5. As far as I know, all early nose-caps had a "lightening" hole bored into the rear of the bayonet boss; grind off the boss and you expose that hole.

6. Is that an "Ishy" screw I see?

7.Steel butt-disc?

8. The timber damage around said butt-disc indicates that it or a previous butt-disc had been removed at some time, and possibly not had one fitted for a while.

The butt looks a lot like one for a Lee Metford Mk1 Carbine. These should have a disc, but in a slightly lower position.

Shouldn't the buttplate on a LEC butt be the same as the 1* rifle? As I understand, the long "tang at the top of the "delta metal" butt plate was to provide a space to put inspection / "ownership" etc. stamps in the days before butt discs.

The "U" on the bolt head indicates a "variation" in specification, (heat-treatment etc.); NOT always a good thing.

The fore-end "grasping grooves" are a bit like Lee Metford Mks 1 and 1*, but if this were an "upgrade" conversion of one of those, what happened to the elliptical clearance cut in the wood, just below the "handle" of the cut-off plate?

This rifle could re-write the books or it could be a complete lemon.

Just my 3 Lira worth.

[browningautorifle]

I must have missed that. I guess. It's one of those one shouldn't forget if he saw it.