SMLE Grenade Firing rifle questions

[Claven2]

Hi gents,

Hoping for some insight. In another thread, I showed an SSA SMLE I bought that has great furniture, etc. but the barelled receiver was badly pitted. Today I happened upon an interesting sporterized SSA that is EY marked, sitting in an MkIII (sporterized, and not MkIII*) stock set, and with a grenade firing re-inforcing screw (not bolt). It has other issues I'll need to fix (like riveting a replacement charger guide back on - will likely rob the SSA one off my rusty action), but rust is not one of the issues with this new gun. I bought it on a whim thinking I may be able to swap it in for my badly rusted and mismatched SSA barelled action, using the other original parts of that SSA.

Then I got to thinking - this "new" SSA barelled action (essentially) I have inbound is actually a fairly rare gun. It's British service, with a cleanly marked EY knox form. EY stamp on butt. Has original steel buttplate (typical of 1918 SSA/NRF rifles). An early type of grenade firing re-inforcing screw, etc. Clearly at some point it was set up as a GF rifle, but for British service (not Indian), typical of many EY rifles in Brit service.

So if I restore this sporter using the parts off the other rifle, might be an idea to restore it as a proper grenade firing rifle of the period (circa 1918).

So now the questions - the LOC approved cord and wire wrapped variants of the SMLE for grenade firing Dec. 9, 1918 originally for rifles to be used at Army Schools of Instruction according to Skennerton, but he also says wrapped EY rifles were used before that, without being in the formal LOC.

We are all familiar with the WW2+ GF rifles from India, and the WW2 era Australian guns are done essentially the same way as each other, but they were all made up well after WW1. Here is my example of these later versions:



But prior to ww2, it looks like the pattern may have differed. I've seen pics of rifles wrapped with either copper wire or whip cord up by the muzzle. I've seen both cord and wire wrapped guns that are wrapped by the muzzle and behind the rear sight. With and without tacks or staples to hold the ends of the wire firmly in place. With and without solder bands on the ends of the wire wrapping, etc.

So my questions... I've not seen a re-inforcing bolt quite like is on this sporter. It looks early to me, and not very "hardware store bolt". Would this maybe from the 1918-ish era?

And if I'm going for a circa 1918 look, what should I use? cord or wire? Soldered or not? tacks, staples, or nothing? just up by the muzzle, or also behind the rear sight?

Anyone got pics/examples of a 1918-1930 era grenade firing SMLE they can share so I can gauge if embarking on this project is worth the effort?

Some pics of the inbound rifle needing restoration:

[Alan de Enfield]

In 1917 the British GF rifles did not have the wire/string wrap.






The early Ishapore GF rifles used both string/cord and steel plates.







Date unknown, but a wire wrap and the cross BOLT

[Claven2]

I’ve read (Skennerton) that the sheet metal is late, not early.

In any event, the UK made wrapped rifles, as did Australia. What I need to know about is early UK examples.

The spotters gun with reinforcing screw still in place is military (the grenade screw is) and not Indian.

[Alan de Enfield]

What I need to know about is early UK examples.

I guess that the difficulty comes in identifying an 'early example'

It may be an EY rifle from around WW1 that was not converted to GF until the 1960's. I'm not aware that they had any markings showing the date of conversion

In Peter Laidlers article on EY / GF rifles he states that they converted 250 of them in 1967 & who knows what the date on the rifles would have been ?
Pobably WW2 at the latest and anytime earlier.


1918 instruction for conversion from EY to GF