Long branch with No 32 Mk I scope

[RobD]

Roger, jmoore: I sense from your posts that this rifle looks "wrong" to you, i.e. faked - but that you don't want to give fakers enough detail to improve their fakery. Is that right?

[Lee Enfield]

Roger, jmoore: I sense from your posts that this rifle looks "wrong" to you, i.e. faked - but that you don't want to give fakers enough detail to improve their fakery. Is that right?

suffice it to say that the blatently faked markings on the repro rings are only the beginning.

[jmoore]

That thing's ready to do "old" Elvis in Vegas. But way off the strip.

[mrbungle]

i looked at it again once you guys said it was a fake and the on second review, i don't know why i did not catch the signs the first time. being a new guy, i guess. but is pretty obvious to me now.

[Ridolpho]

As someone that hopes to buy a Longbranch Sniper someday I'm going to press you guys for a little more. Are you suggesting any or all of the rifle, bracket, and scope are faked or that they just don't belong together? I know from books and the forum that Longbranch T's don't have any of the typical markings (of H&H conversions) but this one does have the long, skinny "T" on the left action body that seems to appear on Longbranch's, occasionally. Can't see the backside of the front pad installation clearly on the photo but aren't these often a little more crudely done than the H&H's? I've only seen one Longbranch "T" for sale north of 49north recently and the owner was asking $10,500. Given the very small number made suggests that the rule of thumb for first-time buyers may be that any Longbranch T one runs across is almost certainly a fake?

Ridolpho

[jmoore]

There's quite a few clues for Long Branch conversions. There's even supposed to be a complete serial number listing like the one for the Australian HTs. But it's unpublished ASAIK, so don't that resource is not yet available.

[ickmann]

I find that scope mount very interesting. The serial number seems to be the same font/style as the number on my R.E.L Lyman Alaskan mount. The Canadian stamp below that looks original as well. Im not convinced that it is a repro mount.

[Surpmil]

I find that scope mount very interesting. The serial number seems to be the same font/style as the number on my R.E.L Lyman Alaskan mount. The Canadian stamp below that looks original as well. Im not convinced that it is a repro mount.

It is unlike any other No32 bracket I have seen, Canadian or US or indeed reproduction. You're right that the engraving of the SN and the cartouche stamp below it resemble Long Branch production, at least at first glance...

The bracket looks sand-cast and there may be file marks visible too. Long Branch finished their brackets more fully than this one, and certain other details are quite different, so I wonder if it is perhaps Israeli, Belgian or Dutch? If it was assembled in one of those countries that might explain the SN engraving, but not the cartouche stamp - which may or may not be a Long Branch stamp.

The chest has been worked over with someone's idea of appropriate markings. The Case No.8 is all tidied up, but the scope is not...doesn't fit does it? Could be the rifle, scope and bracket were actually fitted up in some NATO country, or Israel, and the chest and case were humped...I mean mated...to it later. Impossible to tell now.

No more than the sum of its parts IMO