SMLE nosecap questions

[Bruce_in_Oz]

i was just sorting through some recently purchased parts and came to a SMLE nosecap.

It looks like a slightly battered standard job, except, the barrel hole is a simple round hole. Every Mk111* nosecap I have ever seen has the little extra cutaway section at the top of the barrel hole. The corner points of this cut-out are part of the bedding for Mk7 ammo.

The serial number on this nosecap is V 6537 and it carries a tiny EFD and arrow mark just forward of the sword bar. Thus, it is British, and acoording to the published information, if part of a Mk111, made by BSA, or if a 111*, it could be a BSA, RSAF, SSA, or NRF No1. But is it from an early Mk111 that was set up for Mk6, or earlier, ammo?

The only reference I have found so far is in the usual place, Mr. Skennerton's epic tome. This notes that, on the Mk1 nosecap, there was to be a clearance of 0.002" between the muzzle diameter and the hole in the nosecap. No mention of any special bearing points. However, this is definitely not a Mk1 nosecap.

The component illustration for a Mk111 on page 146 clearly shows the extra cut in the barrel opening of the nosecap.

Information

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[eiclan]

Been enlarged for the heavy target barrel? Ross

[muffett.2008]

More likely reamed out for a rubber nose, heavy barrels were the same front diameter as the light barrel.
Attachment 37702Attachment 37703Attachment 37704

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Nope, not reamed. A standard and heavy barrel were tried for fit.

They just slid in with a whisker to spare all round.

I was not long at high school when I got my first SMLE. It was a "range rifle and had a heavy barrel sans rear-sight, of course. It cost the princely sum of $5, which is also what I paid for a War Office Pattern BSA a few months before. (We are talking early 1970's here). The SMLE also had the nosecap surgery. The catch was that I suspect the work was done by a bloke wearing a blue and white striped apron and wielding a rat-tailed file. The enlarged hole was a bit off-centre and not exactly round. My dad reamed out a rear-sight bed for me and, after reassembly and tightening, I replaced the ratty bit of rubber hose around the muzzle with a good squirt of the then new-fangled RTV silicon rubber, in black, of course. Amazingly, it still shot Mk7 ball VERY well.

That was my first Lee Enfield and it served me well on the range and in the field for a dozen years or so until i got silly (er) and sold it to someone who seemed to desperately want it. If anyone in Oz has a SMLE numbered B12629, that was it.

[Homer]

Bruce sounds like you may have had a 1924 lighgow.

Ive noted the same with regard nosecap holes and wondered why and when. They've always been pre WW1 English or the very earliest Lithgow production.

[5thBatt]

Early nosecaps have a lighterning hole milled into the back of the bayonet boss, not sure when this was deleted, but would not expect it on a late WW1 MkIII*

[jmoore]

It looks like a slightly battered standard job, except, the barrel hole is a simple round hole. Every Mk111* nosecap I have ever seen has the little extra cutaway section at the top of the barrel hole.

One that managed to slip through inspection without the additional cut?

[Aussie48]

I have one here the same but the ears have no cutouts is yours the same mine is a Lithgow around 1928

[muffett.2008]

I thought SON would have chimed in on this by now, my hazy recollection was that there was an EMEI or change that had the barrel bearing hole enlarged by so many thou', would need to find the time to go searching, time is currently at a premium.