Just picked up this 1942 Lithgow SMLE on the weekend

[LAFOShooter]

Hi all,

My first post. I am from Australia and I bought my first SMLE on a bit of a whim a few months ago. The quick back story is that a relative of my wife passed away a few years ago and his collection of SMLE's was disposed of (before i was with my wife). He was a fullbore shooter and these were is firearm of choice.

Fast forward last month, Garage clean out and this was found in an old PVC pipe, wrapped up in a oil soaked rag and grease packed into the bore. I was contacted as i had a licence and was asked what do they do with it. I went over to help the family out and i was presented with the dirty, grease covered rifle.

I was asked if i wanted it, not being one to just take it, i said name your price and they came back with $300 which is what the gun shop offered the other ones. I took it to my dealer while i waited for the paperwork to arrive, it took a few months to sort out.

I finally got it home on the weekend, gave it a good wipe down, cleaned out the bore and removed a lot of the crap that was on it. The bore is seriously shiny and has deep grooves! very impressed 65 year old rifle.

There are some issues with it, such as the trigger guard has serious surface rust and the magazine looks to had at some point.

This is where it becomes interesting for me anyway. The bolt, receiver, barrel and nose cap all have matching numbers. The magazine has no serial number that i can find.

Anyway i wanted to show off my new pride and joy! It was going to be a shooter, but have decided its going to be an occasional one.

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