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1917 Dated SMLE With Magazine cut off
This is probably a really stupid question, and I am sorry if it seems that way, but I have just been granted my RFD ticket, and as I have a bit of a thing for Lee Enfields I bought a couple of shootable SMLE's ...... one is BSA the other Enfield, both are dated 1917, and both have magazine cut off's.............I know they " re-introduced" the mag cut off, tail end of 17, beginning of 18, my question is.....how uncommon are they? I've never seen one before, only read about them, and now I own 2 
Thanks for your help
When you're wounded and left of Afghanistan's plains,An' the women come out to cut up what remains,Jest roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains,An' go to your Gawd like a soldier." - Rudyard Kipling
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09-03-2014 12:05 PM
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They are really quite common. IIRC the lack of a cut-off was never popular with the Royal Navy in particular, & so many Naval issue rifles were retro-converted in the inter-war period. Many of the tidy SMLE's that are on offer in the UK
currently are from the ex-Italian Navy rifles that were recently released. I gather they probably went from the RN or RCN direct to the Italian Navy & many of them bear the 'N' Naval ownership mark on the L side of the butt socket just below the safety banjo spring. I bought about a couple of dozen of them - had a red letter day sorting through 500 of them at one of the bigger UK dealers'!
ATB
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The Following 3 Members Say Thank You to Roger Payne For This Useful Post:
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Thanks for that. They are actually quite nice rifles. virtually untouched. I'm hoping they will make a nice little project for somebody. We have quite a few enfield nuts over here
When you're wounded and left of Afghanistan's plains,An' the women come out to cut up what remains,Jest roll to your rifle an' blow out your brains,An' go to your Gawd like a soldier." - Rudyard Kipling
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Thank You to john Brandon For This Useful Post:
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