L59a1 dp

[Peter Laidler]

You mean, just like making up a good quality, useable No4T repro as I suggested and wrote up a year or so ago - and probably being read up and acted upon at this very moment too. Just so long as you dont sell it or the DP L59 on later as the real McCoy.

A second point is that even a real L59 is only ever going to be worth peanuts so your fake can only be worth the same. That's only my opinion. Just as it is only my opinion that being a true child from the Lee Enfield stable, it's worthy part of every serious collection.

On the interest side, does anyone disagree about it's status in any serious collection? I ask because the old Pattern Room asked us for one so we gave them a couple. And if it's good enough for them....................

[Alan de Enfield]

You mean, just like making up a good quality, useable No4T repro as I suggested and wrote up a year or so ago - .............

Yes - but the difference is that you did not suggest on the 4T repro to copy every marking that was on an original 4T.
Making any 'repro' and marking it up as per original is going to lead (eventually) to it being sold as an original.

The 'maker' will know its a 'copy / repro' and maybe the next owner but eventually the 'message' will be lost and suddenly it will become original.

Surely as true collectors / guardians / lovers of Enfields we should ensure that if we do a 'copy / repro' it is marked in such a way as to be obvious.

[Brit plumber]

Heres a question, I'm a serving RAF Armourer and the L59s were often converted at unit level to a current EMER and I also have access to a Taylor Hobson pantograph. So if i make a L59 conversion with all the correct makings, is it original or a copy?

[Peter Laidler]

Only to a point BP because the EMER was later amended so that those do-it-yourself early, what you might call 'UOR' conversions done at the unit were ordered to be sent straight to Command workshops to be re-done. This time, properly! Ask me one day about the original RAF spec DP's..............

But if you do make one BP, and to answer AdeE again, it's still only worth peanuts - as against a full-house No4T that's worth over a grand or so the last time I looked. If one was worth, say, a couple of hundred ££'s, then maybe there'd be grounds to question the validity of making up a good repro for your collection. In fact, I'd argue that the labour cost to make one (I think that the EMER labour time allowance was 5.3 man hours) would exceed its value. A bit like making up a repro Triumph Dolomite car, another marvel from Speke...... It's still only worth peanuts

[Maple_Leaf_Eh]

The L59 is a drill rifle. In Canada it would fall upon the term deactivated rifle. To be legal, it must be rendered unfireable with welds, machine cuts and hardened steel pins. Nothing moving.

[enfield303t]

Personally I would like to have one as a example of another Lee Enfield and hopefully with the demise of the Long Gun Registry ownership would be a moot point very soon.

[Beerhunter]

1. The L59 is a drill rifle. 2. In Canada it would fall upon the term deactivated rifle. 3. To be legal, it must be rendered unfireable with welds, machine cuts and hardened steel pins. Nothing moving.

1. "Drill" in the case of an L59 means it being capable of: Holding, Loading, Aiming and Firing "Drills" (not just foot drill) and so the rifle MUST be able to chamber drill rounds.

2. But not generically in the UK because the L59 does not comply with Primary Legislation (1968 Firearms Act, as amended). Each individual L59 has to be defended as a deactivated firearm in its own right, or be further deactivated to the current specification. For example being rendered of not being capable of chambering a around.

3. See 1 plus the legislation allows for a moving bolt etc. in the current deactivation specification for that class of firearm.

---------- Post added at 11:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:22 AM ----------

Personally I would like to have one as a example of another Lee Enfield

I agree, that is the reason that I have an Ishapore Musket. I'd like an L59, even if (at least initially) I had to hold it on my Firearms Certificate. I just don't see them in the UK.

[Brit plumber]

I'm lucky enough to have a L59 and it was much much cheaper than a complete original No.4. The conversion is a bit rough so it was obviously done in a base work shop! It has a Rifle Drill L59A1 marking with a 4 digit serial number which is a repetition of the last 4 digits of the original serial number on the wrist.

[Maple_Leaf_Eh]

Don't confuse military training and civilian firearms legislation. To my knowledge, there are no drill rifles in the Canadian Forces with the exception of hard moulded rubber exercise rifles. These are true non guns which resemble the weight and balance of an issue C7 rifle, but are completely inert. All drills and handling training is conducted with issue small arms.

The police and firearms bureaucracy have a bizarre attitide towards replica firearms (illegal) and deactivated firearms (uncontrolled). The text at the bottom of Peter's thread restates the acceptible steps to deactivate a live firearm. And yes, there must be a hard steel pin through the receiver sidewall into and blocking the chamber to prevent chambering even a drill round.

Milsurps - L59A1 DP Rifle (by Peter Laidler)

[gbalke]

I posted earlier on this forum about my L59A1, thinking I bought it from a friend when I bought a few other No. 4 from him. Looking thru some of my old copies of the Enfield Collector's Digest, I came upon an ad for Navy Arms, with some notations I made. They were selling at that time for $29.95, and I recalled that the price was hard to pass up, so I bought one. I should have bought several.