1916 LSA Cocking piece/safety

[JerryEAL]

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I have read the posts on No4 vs. No1 strikers,cocking piece interchanging.
Long Lee vs. SMLE ???
Maybe makes sense why it has a "stored for conversion" stamp, C in a rectangle.
It really looks to have had very little use for being 98 years old. At my level of experience I would not shoot a gun that does not have a functioning saftey either!
No FTR stamps.

Its a cocking piece from a Long Lee.

One of the variants has no safety either on the receiver or on the bolt, and has a plain cocking piece like this.


I have/had one of the rifles. I used it in the UK military Methuen competition one year - I recall there was a stage where the line of troops/firers (civilian service rifle clubs taking part alongside military teams) had to advance to the next 100yd point with rifle loaded and safety applied. In my case the RCO agreed that I'd advance with the bolt open, as the rifle had no safety mechanism at all!

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[Thunderbox]

Next Question

I have read the posts on No4 vs. No1 strikers,cocking piece interchanging.
Long Lee vs. SMLE ???
Maybe makes sense why it has a "stored for conversion" stamp, C in a rectangle.
It really looks to have had very little use for being 98 years old. At my level of experience I would not shoot a gun that does not have a functioning saftey either!
No FTR stamps.

Most probably some recent civilian owner just fitted the cocking piece without knowing what it was. No1 rifles and Long Lee Enfields are more or less the same rifle, and most of the action parts are identical.



It depends what you use the rifle for. Unless you carry it hunting, then there is no real requirement for the safety anyway. On most well-managed shooting ranges, the rifle is usually either loaded and being shot - or has its bolt open and some sort of breech flag or visual safety on display.

[Ridolpho]

Would not this be a cocking piece from a Lee Metford Mk I* or Mark II (or a Charger Loading Lee Metford)? Nit picking but historically interesting as there was a brief period when MLM rifles were issued with no "safeties". Acc. to S.A.I.S. No. 23, the cocking piece is "similar to the SMLE" and the striker from same is "interchangeable on SMLE with single lug".

Ridolpho

[Kiwi]

Would not this be a cocking piece from a Lee Metford Mk I* or Mark II (or a Charger Loading Lee Metford)?

+1 Looks like a Lee Metford cocking piece to me. Just got Lee Metford MkII sporter over the weekend and it's got the same cocking piece.

[stevesmle]

It is a Sparkbrook manufactured Lee Metford Mk I/ I* or II cocking piece made prior to 1896.