.22 Enfield's Part 1

[Lance]

.22 Enfield’s

A collector could concentrate on just .22 versions and never run out of variations to find. Combination's of different conversions, different makers, different years and even different manufacturing contracts are endless. I once started collecting every different .22 Enfield Rifle I could find, then stopped and sold off many pieces when I saw that my collection would be endless. Oh I wish I would of continued.

As this is a collectors forum I have decided to share some of the pieces I kept, hopefully to start conversation, and maybe encourage some others to focus on these great pieces of history. I do have some gaps in my collection, please forgive, maybe I will be able to correct that in the future.

To list all of them at once would be overwhelming so to start:


.22 Short Rifle Mk I and Mk I*

A conversion of the MLM Mk I*, I will not plagiarize Skennerton on the details of the rifle, I will just state that the are an uncommon rifle for the collector. I have yet to come across a .22 Short Mk I*, factory versions are an impossibility but field conversions should be out there.

My example is a 1910 conversion of a 1903, yes 1903, MLM Mk I* issued in 1912 to CMF New South Wales. Unfortunately the bolt is m/m so if you have the bolt out of rack #174, I have the rifle. This rifle has rack #54’s bolt if you have the rifle!

Information

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[Lance]

.22 Short Rifle Mk II

One of the more common examples found in North America, a conversion of the MLM Mk II/II* and MLE Mk I/I*. Often found rebarreled with late 1930, early 1940's barrels. I have been told that many were used by the Canadian military early in WWII but have never seen one with a Canadian property stamp in the receiver.

Some of these examples are dated conversions like my example from Enfield in 1912, others have no place or date of conversion. Some are Naval marked some are not.

My example here is a 1912 Enfield conversion of a 1897 BSA MLE Mk I, Naval markled, it was rebarreled in 1939, of note is the non-standard rear sight protector profile

[Peter Laidler]

You are SO right Lance. There are many, many variants of the little Enfield .22" trainers that really deserve a book in their own right. Add to that the commercial variants and even a little Fazakerly trials variant of the .22" No5 rifle.

The PH N9 will be interesting too.........

Someone out there in Forum world MUST start this little ball rolling soon