1920 Lithgow

[CINDERS]

Apart from the import mark just under the charger bridge on the Rt side I reckon that rifle will clean up a treat given a little TLC the bonus is if the bore is like you say it is then thats what one would really be after.
I was wondering how you got onto all of these lost puppies where in another post you said your an auctioneer what a cool job the puppies find you.
Be interesting to see progress on this rifle I have a 1921 Lithgow its in about as perfect condition as one could expect from a weapon 98 years old.

Those Lithgow butt stock discs are often sold seperately and go for a good penny.

[Anzac15]

Yep, its a Jon Jovino import. Been doing a little cleaning on it today, its looking good. Can't wait to put some rounds downrange.
Yessir, some goodies do come my way in the auction business. Used to do a large amount of estate auctions, there was always a hidden gem as far as firearms went at them.
The sling I found today shows a '1041' rather than a '1941'. I swear it looks authentic.

[smerdon42]

Nice old rifle I picked up my 1917 Tuesday all matching and the bolt only clocks halfway on a no go gauge going to clean this one up and shoot it . Also picked up a Aldo maplemhandguard to match a set I have ready to restock a 1914 Lithgow I have .

[user1]

Nice old rifle I picked up my 1917 Tuesday all matching and the bolt only clocks halfway on a no go gauge going to clean this one up and shoot it . Also picked up a Aldo maplemhandguard to match a set I have ready to restock a 1914 Lithgow I have .

Any chance of posting pictures of the 1914 ?
Cheers

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The "*" indicates a "sub-increment", a design or production variation not deemed deserving of an advance in "Mark".

Thus the "proper" Mk 111 rifle should have all the "fruit", the "111*" was essentially a wartime expedient. By the time the Second Great Unpleasantness erupted, the perceived need for volley sights and magazine cut-off had diminished somewhat.

One of the things that makes these rifles "interesting" is the oddball minor variations; bayonet bosses solid or "lightened from the rear, blank, semi-finished or fully-finished piling swivel "bumps" on the nose-cap, blank, semi or fully-finished cut-outs for the cat-off, various types of cocking pieces, strikers and cocking pieces, ditto trigger-guards.

Unless you get one out of a sealed factory crate, it will be the exigencies of service life and the availability or otherwise of armourers and eagle-eyed Quartermasters that will determine the "update" status of your rifle.

Consider a Lithgow SMLE sent to WW1, recovered from the battlefield, rebuilt "somewhere in England", re-issued to a Brit, "transferred" to an Australian unit near the front, shipped home to Oz and then getting an FTR to see service in the Pacific in the next one and finally being rebuilt again and, liberally sprinkled with all manner of interesting stamps, put into war-stores in the late '40s. Is such a rifle LESS authentic than a pristine, just out of the grease 1920?

There are lots of funnies around, notably receiver bodies that were made as Mk 111, 'upgraded to "111*" and then "restored" to "111" by the simple expedient of striking out the "*" as part of the "re-fruiting" and restoration process.

Note that the ammo changed radically with the transition from Mk6 to Mk7 ball. The sights, magazine and entire bedding regime had to change to accommodate this, just before WW1 kicked off. But they had to keep the long chamber throat because there were still BILLIONS of Mk6 rounds in the "Empire"; much of which ammo was sent ashore to some place called Gallipoli.

[5thBatt]

The "*" indicates a "sub-increment", a design or production variation not deemed deserving of an advance in "Mark".

Thus the "proper" Mk 111 rifle should have all the "fruit", the "111*" was essentially a wartime expedient. By the time the Second Great Unpleasantness erupted, the perceived need for volley sights and magazine cut-off had diminished somewhat.

One of the things that makes these rifles "interesting" is the oddball minor variations; bayonet bosses solid or "lightened from the rear, blank, semi-finished or fully-finished piling swivel "bumps" on the nose-cap, blank, semi or fully-finished cut-outs for the cat-off, various types of cocking pieces, strikers and cocking pieces, ditto trigger-guards.

Unless you get one out of a sealed factory crate, it will be the exigencies of service life and the availability or otherwise of armourers and eagle-eyed Quartermasters that will determine the "update" status of your rifle.

Consider a Lithgow SMLE sent to WW1, recovered from the battlefield, rebuilt "somewhere in England", re-issued to a Brit, "transferred" to an Australian unit near the front, shipped home to Oz and then getting an FTR to see service in the Pacific in the next one and finally being rebuilt again and, liberally sprinkled with all manner of interesting stamps, put into war-stores in the late '40s. Is such a rifle LESS authentic than a pristine, just out of the grease 1920?

There are lots of funnies around, notably receiver bodies that were made as Mk 111, 'upgraded to "111*" and then "restored" to "111" by the simple expedient of striking out the "*" as part of the "re-fruiting" and restoration process.

Note that the ammo changed radically with the transition from Mk6 to Mk7 ball. The sights, magazine and entire bedding regime had to change to accommodate this, just before WW1 kicked off. But they had to keep the long chamber throat because there were still BILLIONS of Mk6 rounds in the "Empire"; much of which ammo was sent ashore to some place called Gallipoli.

The Volley sights etc were omitted from MkIII production & were not omitted to produce the pattern of rifle called the MkIII*
The LoC of 1916 is in 2 parts, part 1 is about changes to the future production of the MkIII & lists those changes, part 2 introduces the MkIII* which is the same as a MkIII but without a cutoff or slot & as such the changes to the MkIII were also applied.

[smerdon42]

I will do so in the morning I have 3 x 1914 lithgows all did service in Aussie army them ended up in British army ,Austrian gendarmerie and last one was in Indian army in 1932 if only they could talk.

Any chance of posting pictures of the 1914 ?
Cheers

[CINDERS]

They are getting very rare the 1914 MkIII's as I think Lithgow only really fired up in the early 1900's or there abouts probably wrong but I have just ridden 167Klms on a very noisey Honda "Fireblade" and cannot be bothered getting out The Lithgow Factory and its People.

[Anzac15]

Believe Lithgow cranked up in 1912.

[smerdon42]

[ATTACH]
[/ATTACH]Attachment 98239Attachment 98238

Any chance of posting pictures of the 1914 ?
Cheers

Here you go guys here is pics, the right side is my 1913 serial number 160,then in serial number sequence 3680 (India final service location)x5669 from British army back to Aussie army in ww2 , then 10265 from Aussie army over to Austrian gendarmerie after ww2. All pass field headspaceand are nice clean bores . The 13 was sporterised so I brought it back to original spec the the middle 2 are going to stay as is and the last one was sporterised and I am going to do Qld maple on that one and do volley sights on it .I also have a 15 /16 and 17 lithgows to go through and clean up my 17 does not close on a no go gauge the bolt gets 1/2 way before it gets tight .let me know what you all think