RCMP Long Branches - photos of use?

[RangeRover]

Aside from the one photo of the RCMP range team in the "Arms and Accoutrements of the RCMP" book I haven't seen any pictures of the RCMP Long Branches in use. Has anyone else turned any up?

I'm curious about their usage in the Force beyond the competition shooting team. (I have a '43 Long Branch - MP-marked w/ the s/n appearing on the master MP inventory list)

The Klancher book describes them as being selected as the force's "service rifle" after the war. My reply back from the historian at the RCMP museum about the rifles didn't shed any light on its use beyond saying the rifles "may" have been issued to the No. 1 Provost Company (RCMP) during the Second World War - though the historian added that no paperwork confirmation exists.

I am guessing that, post-war, these 1,000 or so rifles were used by the Force for rifle qualification for members as well as being allocated to detachments as a nuisance animal rifle and for use in, um, other cases when the sidearm was insufficient for the job.

My father was a Mountie, but as a child I don't recall seeing any Lee Enfields about. I did find, however, among the various boxes of his papers, a carbon copy of an ammunition request from June 1959 (just before I was born) in which he requests his authorized allotment of .303 (as well as .38 spl and .22) ammunition. (scan below)

I'd love to see any photos of the Enfields in use by the RCMP (and does the Canyon Rod and Gun Club still exist?)

Information

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[enfield303t]

I had one in the 60's bought it from a mountie for what he paid $25.00 and sold it a couple of years later for @125.00 and still kick myself. I worked at a bank at the time, he liked coins and I liked rifles so it was a good mix. I was the coin teller so rolled all coin and really got him alot of coins that are collectable today when I look back. This one came out of Depot Division in Regina and I was told used for training and qualification. Looking for one now but needed the money when I sold it and made a good profit for the time I owned it. When I think back they sold them and I have no idea what of if they replaced them with something more modern. More than once my friend and some of his "friends" would borrow 12 gauge shotguns from me for use in roadblocks on the TC Highway. It makes me think they had nothing to use at the detachment so always had to go borrow.

[my72jeep]

My dad was a member to we all ways had .303,.308,.22, .38S&W, 38Special and some .454 Webly ammo all in boxes marked RCMP. Dad said he had joined the Force gun club in the 50's paid his $2 a year and they would send him 200 of every thing he asked for once a year.

[browningautorifle]

I can tell you what replaced them, it was the FN. My platoon commander had one on issue to him in about 1984 and it had the MP stamped clearly on the receiver. It also had rockwell test marks on it which were unusual for that rifle. I know, I was issued enough of them. I forget what year the rifle was, ie 1L,2L or what. I never saw another MP marked rifle.

[Andy]

My Father-in-Law owns (or owned) a book of pictures celebrating 125 years of Canada, and in there is a picture from Saskatchewan in 1952, of an RCMP Officer shooting cattle that were infected with Hoof (Foot?) and Mouth disease - with a No 4.

CANADA: Cattle Crisis - TIME Life Magazine March 10, 1952.

I'll try and see if I can abscond with that book when I visit next, but if not, that issue of Life has the picture.

I also have an RCMP Longbranch - now that I can say it's the gun used n that pic it has doubled in price!

[enfield303t]

My Father-in-Law owns (or owned) a book of pictures celebrating 125 years of Canada, and in there is a picture from Saskatchewan in 1952, of an RCMP Officer shooting cattle that were infected with Hoof (Foot?) and Mouth disease - with a No 4.

CANADA: Cattle Crisis - TIME Life Magazine March 10, 1952.

I'll try and see if I can abscond with that book when I visit next, but if not, that issue of Life has the picture.

I also have an RCMP Longbranch - now that I can say it's the gun used n that pic it has doubled in price!

Interesting Andy as that break-out of H & M was in the Moose Jaw/Regina area so the guns being used were probably from Depot Division in Regina. I remember having the wheels and bottom of our car sprayed with some chemical and if you had got out of your car you had to walk thru a pan with about 1/8 of a inch in it to kill anything you might have picked up. There was a contractor in Moose Jaw Ken Tracey who was a explosive expert and he used exploisives to blow huge long pits where the cattle sick/healthy were shot. Ken also was the person who taught the troops about explosives and I remember him telling me some great stories of funny incidents. The day in 1952 we left for holidays in ther USA they lifted the disenfecting program and I remember going by "stations" where they were dumping the chemical in the ditch beside the road. Today we probably know that chemical would be extremely dangerous to dispose of in that way.

[Baal]

My father was a Mountie, but as a child I don't recall seeing any Lee Enfields about.

I lived in an RCMP detachment until i was 6 years old in 1970. In the basement there was a bomb shelter, a storage room filled with army surplus goods, and a gun room which had many Lee Enfields in a vertical rack and more horizontally on pegs on a wall.

Do you have a complete list of the serial numbers? I have an RCMP marked Lee Enfield, but I don't know if it's serial number is on the complete list or not.

[Badger]

There's examples of "MP" (Mounted Police) No.4's complete with photo pictorials of both 1941 and 1942 Long Branch rifles in the Knowledge Libraries.

For those that haven't seen it, check out the entry in the Canada - Milsurp Knowledge Library (click here).

1942/43/44 RCMP No.4 Mk1* Long Branch Rifles (click here) .....

Regards,
Badger

[RangeRover]

Baal....If you send me the s/n of your rifle by P.M. I'll look at the list in the back of the Klancher book to see if it's there.

As for the racks of Enfields in the detachment in 1970, I don't know what those would be, as the RCMP Historian says they were struck off from the Force in 1966.

Where was this detachment? Just curious, as none of the various one-storey detachment/two-storey attached living quarters buildings I lived in growing up were equipped with anything resembling a bomb shelter. (Of course, my Dad's postings were in a variety of one-horse towns too small to be worthy of a nuke)

[Baal]

Baal....If you send me the s/n of your rifle by P.M. I'll look at the list in the back of the Klancher book to see if it's there.

As for the racks of Enfields in the detachment in 1970, I don't know what those would be, as the RCMP Historian says they were struck off from the Force in 1966.

Where was this detachment? Just curious, as none of the various one-storey detachment/two-storey attached living quarters buildings I lived in growing up were equipped with anything resembling a bomb shelter. (Of course, my Dad's postings were in a variety of one-horse towns too small to be worthy of a nuke)

My memory of those Enfields goes back to when I was very young. I was born in january 1964, and would guess my memory is from when i was about 3. So it might have been just before they got rid of them.

This was New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. Town of about 10k.

PM sent with s/n. thanks