Prototype .22 No5 Rifle.

[Buccaneer]

This rifle should not be confused with the .22 No5 trials rifle as it appears to pre-date it.
This rifle has a serial number SH3 over 25, it has been with the owner since the 1960's and he says that as far as he is aware it is one of a batch of 25 and the only example in the UK with possibly two more somewhere in the USA.
There are no marks on it other than the serial number and BSA on the butt plate.
I have taken pictures of all of the main features including some for comparison next to my No8 rifle, I have also included pictures of the bolts from a No7 and No8 rifle, the prototype bolt is always at the top.
The rearsight is a twin zero type and appears to be made for the rifle, it is fixed in the upright position on the rear of the receiver which to my mind would make it rather vulnerable to damage, the trials rifle has the fold flat arrangement that we are more used to.
There are features that are recognisable in the No7 rifle including the ejector plate and the bolt head that is slightly longer than the No7 but still has the auxillary extractor.
There are considerable differences to the machining to the rear of the action to allow the rear sight to be mounted. The single shot loading platform is spring loaded and is held in place by a flat spring and a plate in the base of the magazine well, centre pop marks on the loading platform show where it was marked out before filing to shape.
The butt plate is black plastic but with a solid steel core which is unlike the standard version that is solid plastic.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

What a neat little rifle, I had a couple of #8's through time. Wish we'd known where the price on them would be today. Besides, they shot so very nicely.

[henry r]

it is interesting that they used the butt stock off a late no4 pattern BSA factory sporter (commercial rifle).


(the rifle pictured belongs to a gent named roy)

[30Three]

Thats a very nice .22!
Last October there was a bolt for a .22 No5 trials rifle for sale in France. Not sure if it sold. The owner did not know what rifle it was for. Would be nice to find the rifle to go with it!

[bigduke6]

For anyone interested, the link below has details of the .22 No5 trials as Buccaneer mentions.

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/Enfield_Rifle_No.5.html

[browningautorifle]

the link below

Has some very neat and interesting rifles too...

[Warren]

Tend to agree with you on it being an earlier variation.....however, we both could be wrong as it is a Lee Enfield.
Attached is a photo of a pair of No.5 .22 rifles and the stock on one is almost a dead ringer for our mystery rifle. The other has a military pattern butt however with a checkered grip.
I'll take a couple of shots of the actions later today or tomorrow, but just no time right now.
I just dropped in to see what was new.
Attachment 80506

[bigduke6]

What a neat little rifle, I had a couple of #8's through time. Wish we'd known where the price on them would be today. Besides, they shot so very nicely.

They certainly do Jim, in fact won me a gold medal in a League on the Rifleman.org site, link below if you scroll down to Service class , I'm in Division 2 not the best of scores but all good fun, if you look at the winner in Div 1 he also uses a No8 ......

http://www.rifleman.org.uk/HARC%20Fi...sults15-16.pdf

[browningautorifle]

if you look at the winner in Div 1 he also uses a No8

I did well too, my biggest competitor was a weapon's tech that had built his own #7 and the rest used stock #7s. When there was a protest, I beat it with "The sight picture was the same"...they didn't know about the adjustable trigger. It was army competition after all...Battalion...

[Peter Laidler]

I have my doubts about these BSA 'No5.22" variants. BSA made the No5's and 8's as contractors for the old MoS. Nothing more nor less. They'd already had their bottoms kicked for over manufacture and selling the No8's plus spare parts for several years to NZ and others*. The WD/MoS had their ideas for the No2 rifle replacement and selected 2(?) types/styles for the trials and these long and short versions are well known about. Fazakerley also put a very simple design forwards based on nothing more than a single feed .22" No5. Like most things Fazakerley, it was a waste of time........!
*Others unidentified as yet

I think that the odd No5/8 versions that come from BSA were really nothing more than commercial efforts by BSA to compete in the small bore market in the UK without treading on the toes of the MoS and the designers at the old Enfield design office at Cheshunt who held the IPR's to the trigger mech and action generally. Just my opinion based on the UK MoS trials papers and handbook we had. On the other hand, it was perfectly acceptable for the MoS and Enfield to tread on the Sterling designers toes and pirate their designs........