B.s.a. Co. 1917 sht le 111

[Badger]

Hello folks ...

I received several emails from someone requesting authentication and more information on his rifle shown in the pics below. I haven't been able to locate their original registered member information, so I've posted their request below on their behalf until I'm able to do that.

have been subjected to everything in the book about this rifle. one thing for sure the alloy fore end was cast i would say in a mold-not welded together in some back shop.

minimal history. i live in brandon mb. buy guns to fix and resell. gent phoned from saskatchewan with several rifles for sale. his son brought them in.

what a mess-bird droppings-spider webs-dirt-rust-barely looked at them and gave him a price. phoned dad-sold!. carried them down to my safe room. stuck this gun and one other in my rainy day pile. several months later pulled out and was quite surprised.

have seen a pile of enfields & b.s.a but never the alloy fore end. all i have done is remove most of the black tape and foam rubber that made up the recoil pad. appears to be ross butt stock.

basically stamped crown G.R. B.S.A. CO. 1917 SHT LE 111-_ F.T.R. SER. 9894-BARREL ACTION BOLT MATCH ROSS BUTT STOCK-ALLOY FORE END-WOOD INSERT-2 METAL OVALS (FOR GRIP SIZE?)

Follow up email...

i was obviously given some very incorrect info regarding milsurp. i will ask one question if you can possibly find the answer. the alloy fore end is not home made-it is a very precise cast part-the retaining screw is a machined part-the wooden insert is precisely cut. this is not a bubba throw together. does milsurp have such a piece-how many have you encountered-if a fee is involved in sourcing this simple request pls advise.

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.

[bigduke6]

Doug,

I,m sure this rifle has been on here before the colour rings a bell........ think it was shot down in flames

[mrclark303]

Blimey, never seen one like it, only ever read about the trials plastic stocked SMLE's but never metal .... its very hard to ruin the businesslike good looks of the SMLE ...... but whoever did this was extremely successful, looks only a mother could love!

[Badger]

Doug,

I,m sure this rifle has been on here before the colour rings a bell........ think it was shot down in flames

You're right partner ...

I thought it looked familiar too, so I went back and found 17 month old thread (4 pages of responses in length) originally started on Oct 13th, 2013 by a member named nealdavis.

Lee Enfield Aluminum stock (click here)

Many more photos are shown, some of which are the same (ie: kitchen shots) as sent to me by email. I'm not sure if the original thread starter is the same person who sent me the email with the same photos, as I still don't know if the email sender is a member or not.

So, for those that have started reading this new thread, you may want to click on the link above and switch over to begin reading (or re-reading) the old thread.

Regards,
Doug

[Richard Hare]

I know metal stocks were experimented with for the No 4 between 1941 & '43, but never heard of one for the No 1 Mk111.

This alloy stock does seem to conform to the action well. Not a shed job with melted down toothpaste tubes! The Ross buttstock doesn't help though.

Can you show us how the stock is bedded, Badger? I am sure the forestock is Not homemade. Why go to the trouble when plenty of cut fore-stocks are floating around??

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

Lee Enfield Aluminum stock

[Badger]

Lee Enfield Aluminum stock

You're right partner ...

I thought it looked familiar too, so I went back and found 17 month old thread (4 pages of responses in length) originally started on Oct 13th, 2013 by a member named nealdavis.

Lee Enfield Aluminum stock (click here)

Many more photos are shown, some of which are the same (ie: kitchen shots) as sent to me by email. I'm not sure if the original thread starter is the same person who sent me the email with the same photos, as I still don't know if the email sender is a member or not.

So, for those that have started reading this new thread, you may want to click on the link above and switch over to begin reading (or re-reading) the old thread.

Regards,
Doug

Thanks Steve.. I found it as well, while you were posting..

Regards,
Doug

[Peter Laidler]

Can we STILL shoot it down in flames? I'll be kind because believe me, in a few years time, this will be the certified trials rifle that was used as the forerunner to all synthetic stocks used thereafter. But in the meantime I would disagree with Richard and venture to suggest, in the kindest way, that it's pure amateurish crap. Not even a first day apprentice would come up with such dire workmanship, let alone a trials and development dept! Just my opinion and spoken as I see it of course

[browningautorifle]

A close friend of mine is an Engineer and has told me countless times he does castings in aluminum. I believe he's quite capable of this and if you look at the spot missing paint, you can see grain in the metal. I think this one was cast by someone as a project...

[Badger]

Although I'm no expert, my guess would also be that it's just some strange put-together, but I noticed in re-reading the October 2013 thread, there were two other people (one on England and one in Canada) who said they owned similarly constructed pieces.

I still haven't verified the member identity of the person sending me the emails with the pics in this thread, some of which match the pics of the poster in the olde thread.

What would be interesting would be to see the pics of all the rifles belonging to all of the owners side-by-side, just to see how these rifles (possibly 3?) compare to each other. Member smellie hasn't been on the site in a while, so if anyone has contact with him, perhaps they could request he post some pics of the one he has and we'll all be able to compare it to the pics of the one shown in both the threads discussed.

Regards,
Doug