Queens Prize SMLE

[Chris7171]

I have just had another look at the marks and on the left hand side it has Birminghan proof marks as well and a small ‘T’ stamp, why has it been proofed twice?

[Mk VII]

Viewing is not the same as proving. Commercial proof is a legal requirement for a sale to take place.

[Chris7171]

I see it now makes a bit of sense, thanks

[Jollygreenslugg]

Lovely rifle Chris. I think a good range rifle is an important item in any comprehensive Lee-Enfield collection. It is a good part of the social history of these rifles and one like yours helps tell the story well.

Cheers,
Matt

[RJW NZ]

[QUOTE=Chris7171;131293]Hi, I have an interesting BSA No1 Mk3 that was used for the Queens prize shoot at Bisley, as you can see from the photos it was regulated by Fulton and has a ball burnished barrel, parker-hale sights and full bedded in cork (note extra barrel band at the front) and stock ajustment screws in the receiver. It is only marked BSA on the wrist band a commercially sold rifle I guess.

Wow, thats a great rifle, thanks for the post and the pics ...

Do you know if those screws are threaded into the receiver?

I'm not trying to hijack your great thread here, I just wanted to mention I have a smle target rifle with similar specs as yours, it was part of the NZ Royal Navy shooting team, I only mention this because strangely, on the knox it has both a regulated by fulton and also a parker hale stamp in the steel.
How that came about, and what each of them may have done to the rifle I have no idea? My receiver is BSA and the barrel appears to be a stock no1mk3 profile with a lot of top and bottom cork bedding. The mods I'm aware of seem to be the normal fultons ones, although I don't have those screws. Perhaps PH marketed fultons rifles?

Back to study your pics, awesome ...thanks

[RJW NZ]

'Give Fultons a ring with the serial number of the rifle. I know they have all of the old record books for all the rifles they have worked on. They may be able to tell what you want to know about the rifle.'

I drew a blank with them when I asked about 6 months ago, if anyone gets some results please let us know.

BTW Chris, where are you located? I'm in west Auckland and shoot at the Deerstalkers range at Riverhead, which I love for its resemblance to an english countryside range with white picket fences.

btw - what kind of front sight post do you have? stock enfield or a stocky thing with sloping sides which I think is a barley corn.

[Mk VII]

I've got one here with the screws threaded into the receiver. They appear to be self-tappers, although I've seen machine screws with threaded inserts in the wood as well.

[RJW NZ]

Hi Chris or MkV11, could I ask you a favor?
That little metal strip that Fultons have added over the top behind the nose cap ... whats the under surface of that strap like? Is it bare metal or is it padded/lined in some way to protect the wood?

I'm going to carefully restore that part on my rifle, mostly because my top guard has warped a lot under pressure from those 3 springs and needs that restraint put back. I looked closely at the one at JoeSalter.com item 12231 and it seems to be floating above the wood, maybe 1/16th's inch gap or more. This would negate the restraint effect, so I'm guessing that there probably was a liner in there, perhaps cork seeing as they used so much of it inside the barrel channel.
Any thoughts?

PS I was able to bring the Joe Salter picture over here. See that gap between the fore end and the top handguard? It's caused by the spring pressure on top of the barrel lifting the guard up, and shouldn't be there at all or the spring pressure will ease off and vary. That this strap is above the wood work is pretty clear is this pic and makes my case that there was cork? on the underside.


And ps, see the other pic of the joesalter right receiver? interesting choice of screws, the same as on the Queens rifle and in the same places too. I don't have any of these, if you know, can you tell me if the back and then the front one threads into the steel or threads on the wood of the receiver? They must have had some faith in this to have done it, I've seen this on 4 rifles now. None close up sadly.

[Chris7171]

Hi 'RJW NZ' I also live in west Auckland, and I am a member of the North Auckland DA at Riverhead, maybe I will see you there (with rifle).

The screws in the receiver are not PK screws but machine screws the rear ones on both sides are screwed into the receiver and hold the wood work tight, the ones in front are screwed into brass inserts in the wood and are used to adjust the wood work from side to side to fine tuning the bedding, the extra band at the front has a strong spring under it to apply pressure on the front bedding (I have only seen both these mods together on long rang 1000 yard+ target SMLE’s)

Chris

[Chris7171]

Under the front band is a small Very strong spring and below that is a shallow hole in the wood that the spring sits in all it has at the bottom of the hole is a steel washer see pics.

It looks like the Joe salter rifle (item 12231) is the same but it has been rebarreled with a Parker Hale barrel (also looks well used!!)





Chris