The anatomy of a Canadian refurbed No.1MkIII*

[Claven2]

Recently some questions came up on the forum about Canadian FTRs of SMLE MkIII* rifles. In light of that line of questions, here is a brief tour of a Canadian refurbed No.1MkIII* that some of you may find of use.



The rifle in question is a transitional MkIII* made by RSAF Enfield in 1916:


Note that the markings look slightly buffed due to the receiver being re-polished before being re-blued (rust blueing, not caustic dip) at refurb during the inter-war years.

As a brief backgrounder, the switch from MkIII to MkIII* began in 1915 with BSA. BSA actually switched over the MkIII* production before the changes had officially been accepted by the MOD pattern room, but in 1916 the remainder of the factories started to switch over to MkIII* production with the exception of LSA who did not switch to the MkIII* pattern until 1918. BSA MkIII* guns made in 1915 and Enfield made guns manufactured in 1916 are often of a "transitional" pattern. This means they are sometimes found with a few MkIII (no *) parts or features, but lack a magazine cutoff and volley sights - hence the term transitional. This 1916 Enfield retains a windage adjustable sight and has a forestock partially machined for the front volley sight.

Here is the original receiver serial number, "F8951". Notice that the "1" is accidentally struck upside down - pressures of war, I guess:


Now we take a look at the nosecap serial number:

Note that the mistake with the "1" was repeated here, pretty much guaranteeing that his part was not replaced at refurb.

Now we see the bolt handle:

Note that the font is period correct, but not exactly the same as the font used on the receiver and nosecap. The "1" is right-side-up and you can see file marks. The whole bolt is rust-blued. This means the bolt body was likely replaced at the Canadian FTR, re-serialized to match, and then the whole thing was rust-blued, and probably the rest of the gun as well.

Here is the windage adjustable sight:

Note that in 1916 this gun could have been issued with several sight possibilities. It could have had a windage adjustable sight, a non-windage adjustable sight, or a windage adjustable sight pinned to be non-adjustable. It would definitely have had the box-pattern rear blade and not the scant style rear sight blade found after 1917.

Flipping it over, we see that this is a recycled sight. It has an old lined-out serial number and was not stamped with a new number. In 1916, especially at the state factory of RSAF Enfield, it is possible that a sight like this was recycled off an irreparable gun onto this rifle, or it's also possible it could have been switched out at Canadian FTR. There's typically no way to know today, but it has clearly been refinished at FTR as there are a couple small spots of blued-over pitting on it. Very minor though.


Here we see an asterisk with the letter "R" stamped under it. Typically, this means at an armorer's inspection, rust was found in the bore. Hard to imagine though since I'd rate the bore 8.5/10 and no signs of corrosion. Perhaps it came out with some wire gauze when the rifle was serived.


The stock must have been scraped to clean it up at FTR since the serial number was re-stamped into the forestock. You can make out the old number beneath the new one, but it's the same number:


Here we see two different styles of Canadian ownership markings in the stock. The older style on the extreme left was probably applied during WW2, and the newer inter-war style markings on the right of the stock disc would have been applied between the world wars, probably at the time of refurb - this pretty much guarantees this rifle came back to Canada after 1918.


The rifle retains a painted-on rack number at the toe of the stock:


Here we see the Canadian ownership markings on the receiver:

Although I forgot to take a pic of it, the barrel is also identically marked and in this case is still the original 1916 dated matching barrel.

Now we see something that just screams Canadian FTR. Canada in he inter-war period did not have the stock duplicating machinery available in the UK. As such, you often see stocks repaired that in the UK would probably have been scrapped and replaced at FTR.

This stock set has three very well done repairs. note that they are not dowel repaired and are tightly fitted and glued.




Hope you all enjoyed this visual walkthrough Since Canada did not mark its SMLE refurbs with "FTR", you sometimes have to be a bit of a detective to ID these rifles properly.

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[bradtx]

Claven2, Very nice! Were you able to find out where the refurbishments were carried out? I feel this is a segment of L-E history that hasn't been touched on in depth, so my thanks for your article.

Brad

[bearhunter]

That is a very pretty rifle. I'm surprised the repairs were as large and extensive though. I would have thought they would have replaced the stock with that much damage. As you say though, pressures of war. The repairs were very professionally done indeed.
Thanks for the montage.

bearhunter

[Claven2]

Actually Bearhunter, the stock repairs were probably done between wars. Canada didn't start making Enfield wood until they tooled up for producing the No.4MkI in ww2. Prior to that all the spare stock set had to be shipped over from England. As a result, more wood go repaired that would have been the case if they'd had access to a duplicator