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    British army dump - Rare Besa find

    HI all

    I paid a visit to my Britishicon army dump site permission last week and had some great finds again. The majority I already have examples of but I did find one or two 'new' pieces for my collection.

    As I already had plenty of examples of a lot of the stuff, I decided to keep my eye in with full restoration and take some back to shiny brass. I don't do this with many relics as I like to keep the aged patina, but the odd one or two shiny items are fine. It also shows that, just because something has been in the ground for 70+ years and is covered in corrosion, it doesn't mean it can't be saved!!

    I have also described how I clean the relics in the below video.




    Here are the finds. If you want to know what they looked like before being cleaned, you'll need to watch the vid!





    303 drill rounds. No percussion caps present in any of these and the headstamp show them to be 'dummy' rounds.



    Connectors to fit the condenser pipe to the steam jacket of a Browning M1917 water cooled MG.



    Same thing, but this is a Mk I Vickers MG connector.



    And these are the more familiar Mk II Vickers elbow connectors



    Top pawl springs from a Vickers feed block



    Aerial sights from a Lewis MG



    Cloth belt starter tabs and the spouts from oil bottles.



    Vickers MG cloth belt starter tabs, all nicely marked, one even dated 1940 (40)





    Markings on the Browning cloth belt starter tabs.





    Lots more buckles again on this trip.....



    Lee-Enfield and Springfield sling buckles along with three pull through rods



    Kerr sling buckles, (most commonly used with the Thompson SMG). Three different types but all used on the same sling.







    All nicely marked 'NOBUCKL'





    Lastly, Lee-Enfield No. 1 nose caps. This takes my tally of these to above 30!





    And now the Besa find. Rare beast this is........combination tool








    Hope you like the finds.

    RRPG
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    Last edited by RRPG; 11-14-2015 at 10:13 AM.

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    A Collector's View - The SMLE Short Magazine Lee Enfield 1903-1989. It is 300 8.5x11 inch pages with 1,000+ photo’s, most in color, and each book is serial-numbered.  Covering the SMLE from 1903 to the end of production in India in 1989 it looks at how each model differs and manufacturer differences from a collecting point of view along with the major accessories that could be attached to the rifle. For the record this is not a moneymaker, I hope just to break even, eventually, at $80/book plus shipping.  In the USA shipping is $5.00 for media mail.  I will accept PayPal, Zelle, MO and good old checks (and cash if you want to stop by for a tour!).  CLICK BANNER to send me a PM for International pricing and shipping. Manufacturer of various vintage rifle scopes for the 1903 such as our M73G4 (reproduction of the Weaver 330C) and Malcolm 8X Gen II (Unertl reproduction). Several of our scopes are used in the CMP Vintage Sniper competition on top of 1903 rifles. Brian Dick ... BDL Ltd. - Specializing in British and Commonwealth weapons Specializing in premium ammunition and reloading components. Your source for the finest in High Power Competition Gear. Here at T-bones Shipwrighting we specialise in vintage service rifle: re-barrelling, bedding, repairs, modifications and accurizing. We also provide importation services for firearms, parts and weapons, for both private or commercial businesses.
     

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