Quote Originally Posted by Anzac15 View Post
Picked up a MkII that has been smoothbored, have never seen one before. Has a small fixed rear sight.

Germanyicon is awash with smoothbore MH and percussion Enfields, and no doubt the situation is similar in other countries. Some are one-time service rifles that were turned into shotguns after being retired from service life. But every single one I have seen (and it must be in 3-figures by now) with a soldered-on simple backsight notch was Indian "for backwoods use only" or Khyber Pass "live dangerously - shoot this once". It took me 4 years of looking at this kind of hazardous scrap to find a genuine MH with a good bore.

I have held in my hands a MH with excellent markings - in fact, so crisp that I was suspicious (the markings were much better than the quality of the metalwork). With the help of a watchmaker's eyeglass it could be seen that these markings had been photographically etched. Ali Bubba and Sons seem to have adapted printed-circuit board etching techniques to their purposes. You could not tell the fakery in a photo. Be very, very careful.

Patrick