The Long Branch that came with the Swede

[Aragorn243]

As promised, the after photos of the Long Branch. This was more an extensive cleaning than anything else and after taking it out into the sunlight for the photos, I see I need to do some more cleaning of some of the metal.

I replaced nothing, just wire brushed off the metal and cold blued the metal ends of the fore stock and hand guard. The but stock I did nothing to. The fore stock and hand guard I used one treatment of citristrip and two coatings of Behr wood treatment (bleach) on the rust stains. After drying it now has three coats of BLO on it and will get a few more before it's finished. As I suspect BLO is what was on it in the first place, the color looks the same as the butt stock.

Nearly everything that is marked has the Long Branch mark on it. The exception is the bolt and I can't tell exactly what is on it because of the black paint. It does look like a US ordnance bomb is on the handle which I believe makes it a Savage but there are no Savage marks that I can find. I thought that was the lend lease mark. The stock has a New Zealand acceptance mark. The metal parts have what I believe to be Canadian acceptance marks. I cannot tell what was once stamped in the wood just behind the bolt. Looks like it was once three letters with the first being a "D" or "O" and the second being a "P" or an "A" and the third being an "I" or an "H". The barrel is a two groove and dated 42 as is the receiver.

If anyone can tell me why the left side of the stock ring was ground off and the four large numbers stamped I'd appreciate it. I'm guessing some sort of unit marking.

The bayonet did not come with it but is a Long Branch so I included it.

A couple of befores:






























This one I'm not afraid to shoot so if anyone sees anything wrong with it let me know. Pitting along the wood line in places and on the stock ring but not really anywhere else. Looks to be old pitting, not from the recent rust attack.

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

Very impressive save! I intend to add a Longbranch some day love the look of the slotted uper hand guard.

[Rumpelhardt]

It came out very nice. Great looking wood on it.

[Peter Laidler]

Looks suspiciously like it's had the letters DP scrubbed off the top rear of the butt close to the body......... And I wouldn't mind betting that those same fateful letters were ground off the left side of the butt socket. But I could be wrong!

Anyone else care to chip in!

[Brian Dick]

I think you said it all Peter.

[Aragorn243]

Peter,

That was my first consideration and concern but it looks like three letters, not two, and it is also off center for two but not three.

I also can't find anything wrong with the rifle and I've gone over it pretty thoroughly. The barrel isn't even close to being shot out, bullet in the muzzle stops a good 3/8ths to a 1/4 to the case mouth.

There are no extra holes drilled, no welds, nothing else scrubbed off, no refurbishment marks. The stock obviously was sanded down at some point but other than the side wall being ground and re-stamped, there isn't anything I can see indicating it's a DP rifle. The re-stamping of the side I have seen with unit markings.

I'm not saying it isn't a DP rifle, I simply see no definite signs it is. If you can give me something more specific to look for I'll check. All the damage to the rifle occurred recently.

[Peter Laidler]

The TROUBLE with a DP rifle is that you usually CANNOT see that there's something wrong with it......... After all, if there was or you could see it or it was obvious, then it'd be no use as a DP! I don't want to be a scaremonger but I'll give you a few examples:

55 rifles with stripped, battered or very loose front trigger guard screw threads. Old thread drill-bored out, countersunk and sleeved with press-fit and chamfered sleeve. New sleeve inserted and mig welded around the double countersink/chamfer. Someone notices that the hole in the new sleeve isn't to the 'correct' depth shown on the IP. So rifles set up in a jig and new sleeves drilled down to 'correct' depth prior to threading. When all done, inspector notices that the 'new' drilling into the sleeve goes right through body and into barrel, ending up about 3mm from the chamber.
Rifles rejected and returned to Ordnance for disposal OR decision/authority to convert into DP status. Safe? NO! Serviceable? No! DP? Yep, perfect for the job

Rifles rejected due to bowed bodies/bolt guides. Only detectable with Inspectors gauges. Safe? Yes but tight bolts. Serviceable? No. DP? Perfect!
Same rifles with worn magazine stop face. Safe? Yes but magazine will intrude too far at front. Serviceable? No. DP? Yep, no problem at all............

I wrote a long article about the selection of DP rifles some years ago. You pays your money and takes your choice is what I say!

[Aragorn243]

On the positive side, I paid nothing for the rifle so even if it is a DP, I got a good deal.

I do know the fellow who owned it before me fired it which in itself doesn't mean a whole lot I suppose. I have a bunch of brass that came with it along with 60 rounds of civilian manufacture ammo. I don't know if the ammo is any good either as it was in the wet also so I'm not planning to do anything with that anytime soon.

I'll look it over again, I'm in no rush to do anything with this. Like I said, nothing obvious. I examined it pretty carefully during the cleaning simply on the chance that the stock marking was "DP"

[Aragorn243]

I tore it apart again and checked it out. Front trigger guard screw was not sleeved or drilled out, wasn't quite as deeply drilled as another No 4 that I have. Bolt works fine, no holes where holes shouldn't be. Took it to the range this morning and remote fired it off a lead sled with a string. Casing looks fine, primer looks fine. Checked the rifle out again and no issues. Shot a five shot group with it high and to the left. Nothing to brag about but everything seems fine. Only had one issue with the 5th and final round not wanting to come out of the magazine.

There are no DP markings on the metal and I really don't think the wood is a DP marking either, too many letters.