Grooved hand-guard

[that was loud]

Went to the Edmonton Gun show today, pretty slim pickings. What I did notice though was what I thought was an Enfield with horizontal grooves in the hand-guard. I'm new to the LE line of rifles and was more interested in a swedish rifle so I didn't look much closer to confirm the actual manufacturer. The grooved hand-guard was the only one I've seen like that. There appeared to be approx 3 grooves evenly spaced but not extending up to the top surface of the hand-guard. I couldn't find anything in the Milsurp Library under the Canadian or English sections. Is this something particular to a certain model? Have I mis-identified the rifle?

Information

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[Badger]

When you say 3 grooves, did they run the length of the rifle parallel to the barrel?

The grooves in this pic are at a 45 degree angle and there's 4 of them. It didn't look like this did it?


(Click PIC to Enlarge)

Regards,
Badger

[that was loud]

The grooves ran almost the entire length of the hand-guard, the short upper piece above the barrel line. They were horizontal, smaller in size and depth than a pencil. They appeared to be even as well (not hand cut?). They must be cosmetic as a person's hand wouldn't normally support the rifle at that point when shooting.

If it doesn't ring any bells right away with you Badger then maybe it's someone trying to "pimp out" their rifle. Might explain why it wasn't getting a lot of attention (sale).

[stencollector]

Are you talking about a grooved rear handguard on a #4? Quite common, and interchangeable with the regular non-grooved handguard.

I was at that show as well, I stuck around an extra night after attending Bud Haynes auction. I managed to spend $20 at the show. There wasn't much there to tempt me.
Bud Haynes was another story. The old Mastercard got quite a workout there.

[that was loud]

Are you talking about a grooved rear handguard on a #4? Quite common, and interchangeable with the regular non-grooved handguard.

I was at that show as well, I stuck around an extra night after attending Bud Haynes auction. I managed to spend $20 at the show. There wasn't much there to tempt me.
Bud Haynes was another story. The old Mastercard got quite a workout there.

Hah! I was starting to think I had lost my mind, or that someone was going to "flame" me for not being able to distinguish a mini-14 from a Lee Enfield! Thank you for the info!.

They managed to get $5 out of me (admission) but nothing else. I had hoped to come away with some brass to feed my Mosin but no luck so in the safe it sits. The highlight for me were the furs at the back, sad comment for a gun show. Were there some interesting items at the Haynes auction, I wasn't able to make that one?

[stencollector]

Bud Haynes show was good if you were after some milsurps. Dave Tomlison's collection of guns and books were on the block. A reasonable number of full autos.
I picked up a FN EX-1 (DP marked), a Thompson SMG, and a smokin deal on a FN49. Unfortunately, the EX and the FN49 are destined for deactivation, while the Thompson was actually purchased for a local museum. I got lots of good books too. Some older reference books like the Webley story or the Service Lee, along with several of the collector grade books. I'll part with the ones I don't need so as to recoup some of my expenses.

[Skippy]

Here's an example of what you likley saw on my '42 Savage:

[that was loud]

That's it. Any particular reason for the grooves? Being wartime I can't see manufacturers putting a lot of effort into asthetics...or did they?
What LE factories offered the grooved hand-guard?

Nice looking rifle btw.

[Claven2]

totally random - some subcontractors put them there, others received permission to relax the specification and ommitted them. It's totally random as to which was used on any gun - a matter of what was next in the bin at assembly time.

[that was loud]

I'm learning more each time I log onto this site....scary.

Thanks Claven