1897 Long Lee in Royal Navy service

[BurtonP]

Picked up this beauty at the local gunshow. 1897 Sparkbrook MLE, refurbished at RSARF Sparkbrook in 1904, and subsequent Royal Navy use with N stamp on wrist and Portsmouth armoury stamps on barrel. It has really nice bore with strong shiny rifling, and I find it hard to believe that it had much service on a Royal Navy ship in the Great War, what with the corrosive salty environment. Maybe it stayed in stores in Potsmouth? It has the dial sights and cutoff, but no dust cover. The mag looks original and the two loops are intact. Matching serial numbers on the receiver, barrel, bolt and rear sight. I think this will make a nice shootable restoration.

My apologies for the mediocre pictures.

As a bonus the buttstock contained a pull-through of a type I've not seen before. It looks like a pencil fuse, but I'm no expert. Does anyone know whether this is a real weight or something else?

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