No.4 Mk.1 foreend with cut-out..

[enfieldman]

The early No.4 Mk.1 Lee Enfield foreends with the right side cut-out.
Were these stocks solely British made? As they turn up on Savage & Long Branch
No.4`s, was this British inventory sent to these startup factories to expediate things?
Or, did Long Branch & Savage make them initially?? Thanks.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

The mag cut-off recess was the specification as issued, But as soon as it was realised that it was redundant in any case, it was simply deleted from production. And any cut-off equipped rifle needing a replacement fore-end got the later spec fore-end. This was made known in the very earliest Instructions for Armourers (IA's) which were soon replaced by the first EMER's

As a matter of academic interest too and little known is that the magazines were ALL produced to the old original drawing spec with a lowered right side for the mag cut-off. However, this feature was never rescinded nor the drawings altered to make them simpler to manufacture and equi-sided(?) because of course there were still thousands of mag-cut-off type No4 rifles still in the system and they had to be capable of being serviced. I suppose if they had made a simplified mag with mag side-walls the same height, you COULD have just removed the cut-off when you needed to fit a high sided mag to a trials type No4. But you weren't allowed to leave the cut-off slot open to the elements. IA's and EMER's stated that the rifle - and it applied to the No1 too...., had to have a cut-off fitted or the slot covered by the fore-end to prevent the ingress of dirt and shi............ er...... what's the Army technical word I'm thinking of...........?

There, another little bit of absolutely useless long lost Enfield rubbish

[boristhepig]

Hi
I have a Savage NO4 with low side wall cut out and it is marked S for Savage manufacture so they did produce them there self's in North America it also has the early rounded cocking piece that is also S marked

[Roger Payne]

Both Savage & Long Branch made them in North America. I don't know where they started life but I bought a load of assorted No1 & No4 spares about ten years ago & there were quite a lot of Long Branch early pattern fore ends amongst them; both in birch & walnut.

ATB.

[enfieldman]

Were they used by Long Branch throughout the war years? that is to say would LB have installed one on a `43-`45 rifle or just on `41-`42 rifles?
Were they used as replacement or for FTR work?
I have one on a `42 LB but serial # on the stock is incorrect to the rifle. first 2 #`s are incorrect

[Roger Payne]

The fore ends I bought were all take-offs from LB rifles, but they were all lowish serial numbers - 1942 manufacture so far as I recall. I've never seen one of the early fore ends fitted de novo on a later rifle. Of course it could have happened but I don't think you are likely to come across many if any 1944 or 45 rifles fitted with one unless it's a replacement.

ATB

[Brian Dick]

I'm with Roger. I've had hundreds of Long Branch No.4's through here and factory original rifles with the mag cut-off recess would be limited to 1941 and early 1942 production. Not to say that one didn't slip in afterwards because anything is possible with wartime production but it certainly wasn't the norm.

[Mk VII]

I've found evidence of shipments of furniture going the other way, from North America to England.

[enfieldman]

A great help!! Thanks Phil.

[enfieldman]

Just another thought though, and maybe a rather stupid question, but is this to say that
all `42 LB Lee Enfields were stocked with the mag.cut-out forends?? Or
was NON Cut-Out forends used on them as well, as with later production??