A little enfield secret to share

[RJW NZ]

... just a little bit of rare enfield hunting trivia to add to the semi permanent state of tease ...

Here in New Zealand and around the world for those in the know, one of the desirable enfields to own are ones that have been owned by NZ Maori battalions. Maori warriors were known to do a little whittling and carve up the rifle stocks, lol, before they did the same on the enemy. If memory serves me they were stationed in North Africa at places like El Alamein and maybe at Monte Casino, I could be wrong here but if so someone will know the facts.
If we disregard all the logical reasons why deeply carved rifles might not have survived the war, unit armors putting them back to stock, commanding officers etc etc, never the less, some have shown up and arrived in the hands of collectors around the world since WW2.

These days there's quite a cultural revival here in NZ, similar to Native Americans in the USA, and enfield stocks with modern made Maori carving do show for sale occasionally, so the question is how does one sort a real one from a fake? The modern repros here are not being sold as Maori Battalion, but sooner or later a determined faker will try to.

Take a look at these pics. Ignore the patina, it could be recreated. The give away that this is probably the real thing is the shape of the carving on the left side.

Where ones cheek rests is a smooth part of the carving, and the reason is .... one shot with a freshly carved piece of wood would probably be like a bit of 100 grit on the skin and take ones cheek right off, so, enfields that were in combat use were smooth where ones cheek goes.

So, there ya go, its not definitive but it is one of those strong clues you add to the other subtle 'feels right' or 'feels wrong' clues that one looks for ...

as the Maori boys would say, lol, Happy hunting ...

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

Ity's not just butts that they used to carve either. They were dab-hands at carving the wooden handguards of the L1A1 rifles too. I took a beautifully carved set off one L1A1 that showed a kiwi bird armed with a spear, surfing on a surf board with the words 'death and torture to all VC' (viet cong). I still had them a few years ago but can't put my hands on them now. No doubt he just carved the new set that I put on afterwards.............. It was a losing battle

[Badger]

Interesting ...

Here's a few pics from a related entry in the MKL. When John mailed the pics to us, he said the rifle butt was hand carved at Gallipoli (Had to be carved by a Maori but also note the thistle).

John Sukey's Collection of Oddities and Unusual Pieces (click here)

(Click PIC to Enlarge)

(Click PIC to Enlarge)

The owner was Clifford William Treweek and he was at Gallipoli.
(WW1 13/173 Army 1914-1918 Record 0115727)

Regards,
Doug

[RJW NZ]

Wow, thats something else!
I could have mentioned too that the styles of carving can indicate the general period they were done. This is purely an accident of the passage of time, these days for instance an image maori chief with pointed teeth would be very hard to find, but less so 100 years ago.

[fergs]

After working with our brothers from across the ditch i found them quite adept to carving just about any peice of timber that they found lying about. So ispose its almost an inbuilt race thing, most impressive.
Regards
Fergs

[GDU]

Thats interesting,the Kiwis were issued long Lees at Gallipoli,I wonder if thats a Lithgow butt he's picked up?

[me2]

I generally do not care for carving (the typical deer, bear thing) but the Maori style is impressive! Some of those talented fellows could make good money doing it on a custom basis for well-to-do gun owners who are looking for the next chic "thing" in gun decoration.

[RJW NZ]

and coincidentally for sale this week; Maori carved .303 Lee Enfield No4 Mk1 rifle for sale - TradeMe.co.nz - New Zealand, and also ; Maori carved .303 Lee Enfield No4 MkI* rifle for sale - TradeMe.co.nz - New Zealand