ROF Fazakerley No.4

[P246]

browningautorifle is correct. New Zealand was one military that was big on stamping their magazine with their NZ mark for example. NZ marked rifles are one of my collector interests. The rifle looks very solid and from a couple forums Brian has a very good reputation. That satisfies two out of the three things I look for. Price being the third and that's between the two of you. Good luck.

[Brian Dick]

Not so on post war manufacture Fazakerly rifles Jim. The magazines were engraved at the factory with the rifle serial number. As long as they fit and function correctly, it's really no big deal. All Enfield magazineds through the ages were fitted to the individual rifle and only were supposed to be removed for maintenance.

[browningautorifle]

Not so on post war manufacture Fazakerly rifles Jim.

Fair enough, that's a good point to note. The rest is as I understood, mags stayed with the rifle.

[P246]

In the very early trials it's my understanding the idea was to issue soldier 3 magazines then resort to stripper clips per Skinnertons. I don't remember If the actual idea was dropped for simply stripper clips due to cost or magazine fitting issues with the L.E. If I had to guess it was both but the magazine fitting issue was primary. Having owned and shot L.E.s for years I've been that guy. Took out several loaded mags to shoot 1 rifle. This was years ago when I was probably 18 or 19 and knew everything. Imagine my surprise when most didn't feed well. Some people have to learn the hard way (Old man tried to tell me but he didn't know nuttin).

[CINDERS]

Funny thing about old men and dad's they seem to know a thing or to and in our youth I am sure as young men or teenagers we knew it all and did it our way only on occasions our way did not lead to the highway then with cap in hand confront your dad with a request for assistance sometimes my dad had a wry smile on his face when my best laid plans on how it should be done amounted to a meltdown of the plan yes indeed old men!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched my 17y/o work on his pit bike yesterday was a rear tyre change I stepped in when the spanners & tyre levers started getting scattered around calmed him down and then proceeded to show him how to approach getting the tyre/tube/rim assembled I at times got a bit out there as man those small tyres have a very strong bead that takes some getting over the rim I used soapy water to get it over the rim and then seated correctly needless to say my son found something else to do once I grabbed the reigns though he assisted after I said do you really want to ride this bike tonight!
Finally steer clear of pit bikes (small scale scramble motor bike) do not let your children buy one go to a full size one .

[Flying10uk]

I remember a very similar incident, Cinders, a number of years ago to the one you mention above. It concerned two middle aged medical doctors trying to repair a puncture on a new Mountain Bike that they had purchased a couple of weeks previously. They had taken the bike back to the shop covered in mud to complain that there was something wrong with it because one of the tyres had got a puncture after only two weeks. I happened to be the shop and the staff were dealing with other customers and so the shop manager told the doctors that they would have to fix the puncture themselves. I was amazed to see that two highly intelligent doctors didn't have a clue were to start in repairing a puncture. I was going on somewhere else and so didn't want to get covered in mud by doing it for them but I did try to explain to them how to go about fixing the puncture. The two Doctors still couldn't grasp what they had to do to fix it with me standing next to them explaining what to do. In the end the manager had to come out to repair the puncture but the Doctors still thought that it was the shop's fault that they had got it in the first place.

[browningautorifle]

In the very early trials it's my understanding the idea was to issue soldier 3 magazines

That's very interesting too, the lips are soft and take deforming easily so I suspect this came to light early. The cost of replacement and repair and fitting would be excessive. Bandoleers became the norm and we've all used them...without issue.

[Ridolpho]

The original Magazine Lee Metford I was issued with 2 magazines but, if I recall correctly, this was phased out by I*. I assume the primary mag was attached to the guard and you let it dangle while slamming in the second. Would definitely have been the fastest way to fire 16 consecutive rounds. The decision to issue one mag per rifle was a major break from the original Lee concept which was based on rapid magazine changes. In "The Remington Lee Rifle" (Mysakowski, 1994) there are reprints of old adds for both military and sporter versions that could be equipped with 4 (5 round) magazines. I can't imagine it would have been too tough to engineer the mags to make them cheaper and tougher. If MLE's during the Boer War had been equipped with 3 (10 round) mags it might have rendered them more competitive with the stripper clip loading Mausers?

Ridolpho

[browningautorifle]

The original Magazine Lee Metford

Again makes sense as they had no provision for charger loading...