Need a picture from Skennerton books about the Lee Enfield rifle

[Smellymarkfive]

A little context might help. Looks like they were dug up.

[RRPG]

Certainly Smellymarkfive - This was recovered from a British army dump site. I have been digging this site, (with landowners permission of course), for more than 5 years and one of these first appeared a couple of years ago. Since then I have had lots more, most beyond saving, but a few are 'intact'. They always come from within the dump layer containing recognisable WW2 relics so it will be from WW2 or earlier. The dump is full of weapon and tripod parts from numerous weapons used by the British, (LE, Sten, Bren, Vickers, Browning M1917, Boys.....), along with armourer tools as well.

So, this could be part of any of these items but is certainly military in origin. Every single item found in this dump is just that, so we know it isn't just some random crap. Along with the number of these recovered, it is obvious it has something to do with a weapon, but what......is the question!

The relic itself is roughly four inches long by 2 inches wide so seems far too big to fit inside a rifle, but could feasibly be from within a larger calibre weapon or MG.

I thought for a short while it maybe a gauge square, but I don't know enough about armourers tools to try and track it down.

More pictures below. Markings read .......

6163511B
C.F.S. Co.
LH


Attachment 70016

Attachment 70012

Attachment 70013

Attachment 70014

Attachment 70015

[Peter Laidler]

The grenade launcher was a good guess though wasn't it? That part number reminds me of some of the US kit with similar numbers we used to get for the .30 and .50 Brownings. That Hexagonal recess in the tube part is so that the tube part can be adjusted for depth when it's fitted to whatever it fits onto.

I think you are unearthing a what we used to call an RSSD. That is a Returned Stores Sub Depot. That's where all the crap returned to Ordnance gets sorted into various categories that they used to call '.....all the S's' for salvage, scrap, sale and store. In truth, the only stuff that ever went back into store were things that were still sealed and packaged with identifiable part numbers.

When the place was ready for closure they just put it all on the burn ground, burned it and turned it in. There were various other methods and the most common was just dump it at sea or sell HUGE lots of things, especially vehicles, off to the locals for a song. I saw Auster aeroplanes used for fire practice........

[RRPG]

Yes it was Peter. Now I'm thinking more along the lines of an armourers tool.............

[Smellymarkfive]

Is it part of the Lewis gun cleaning kit?

---------- Post added at 07:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:40 AM ----------

There's something very similar for sale on the BRP site called a vickers cleaning plug. They have longer handles but are the ones you have broken?

[Sentryduty]

I have been running the ID marks through google in various iterations with no matches.

I see a number that is either 8163511B or 8163511D or 8163911B or 8163511D

There is C.F.S. CO.

And does one appear to have a shallow stamping of L.H. in skinny letters, could that indicate there is a Left and Right hand to a pair of these?

[Peter Laidler]

The central round part with the hexagonal centre is retained in the main block by a taper pin that you can see reasonably clearly in pictures 1,2 and not so clearly in photo 4. From photo 1 it would appear that the recessed block protruding to the rear is allowed to articulate on a pin (just visible and rusty in photoi 2. I bet this pinned block is spring loaded so that it opens up slightly and closes over 'something'. Then the hexagonal nozzle bit is adjusted to tighten it all up.

Obviously designed by a high ranking committee. It's one of those tools, similar to a Sterling SMG or No4 rifle zeroing tool or better still, the extractor removal tool on the L1A1 rifle. Part of a kit that all Armourers learn how to use and then promptly forget about because it's total crap! When a small hammer, a brass drift and 6 months experience enable you to do the job quicker and better.

But a good thread. Keep it up RPG!

[mike1967]

Slight digression, whats the earliest use of hex head screws that anyone knows of on Military firearms or accoutrements. As in official not fitted by gunsmith.

TIA

[Sentryduty]

The patent on hex drive appears to be 1910, so that is of little help, but their use on firearms is something I do not know.

Flat heads seemed to have been the gunsmithing standard for a very long time.

[Peter Laidler]

Sterling SMG - early 50's is the first use that I recognise from our small arms. Does anyone disagree that the photo does show a hexagonal allen key recess? We had a little joke, saying that the Military should have stopped using allen keys the moment Leatherman/Gerber started putting them on their utility knives!