Beautiuful No.1 Sporter

[newcastle]

Stumbled across an really nice Enfield Sporter in a Pawnbroker and snapped it up. It's really nicely done and has had alot of effort put into it. I am pretty sure that it must have been actually made in this configuration rather than being converted from a No.1. It has a curved base to the 5 round magazine but it also has a magazine cutoff. I assumed maybe a private sale / hunting rifle or something, and chambered in .303 British (not marked on the rifle - I just assumed and tried 303 snap caps and they fitted nicely).

Has BSA on the Butt Socket and alot of nice engraving has been added around various parts, (magazine, butt socket, butt plate, safety, bolt cover etc etc. it has been fitted with flip up sporting sights (100yd, 200yd 300 yard) and a ladder sight on the barrel. All in all it just feels solid and thought it's hard to explain it just feels RIGHT. It balances beautifully and almost flies up to the shoulder and sights itself. There is also a Tang safety with a BSA patent number and a 4 digit serial number under the bolt handle and on the bolt which match. This is my favorite sporter and I haven't even fired it yet.

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Information

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[NORTHOF60]

Congratulations on your purchase. It looks really nice. I'm surprised there are no calibre markings. Can you provide better pictures of the barrel at the knox form? That is where the calibre and proof marks should be.

[englishman_ca]

Great find! You appear to have a BSA made Lee Speed No.1 Pattern sporting carbine (No.1 pattern is not the same term as that as military No.1 rifle).

[browningautorifle]

Nice rifle, appears to be a "Gentleman's rifle" of one of the types they made. As stated, not a sporterized version and much sought after by those that collect them.

[henry r]

nice, I'm jealous.

englishman, wouldn't it be a no2 lee speed, the no1 having a barrel rib.

[englishman_ca]

I think that you are right, a No.2 without the rib. I'll have to pull that old BSA catalog out and have a look.

[newcastle]

Her are a couple of pictures of the knox barrel area . Nothing on the top at all. Nice broad arrow mark too.
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[S-A-M3]

Englishman_ca , is the person you need to listen to,he really know his sh**. Stuart.

[englishman_ca]

Stuart, I am but a student of the Lee. The commercial rifles both military and sporting are something that is bit of an unknown with scattered information. The commercials came with a bewildering combination of options. It is often like detective work reading markings and looking at features to try and date them. Some were built and finished by independent high end gun makers (Holland & Holland, Greener, Cogswell & Harrison, Purdy) using just the factory actions as the base, they have very little marked on them making it even more of a challenge to figure out a time line. Lee Speed style sporters also have been built continuously over the years by some very skilled artisans.

There are one or two chaps who have been collecting these rifles and gathering information for some time. I learn from them.

I am a sponge for information and am always all over any Lee Speed that comes along. My collecting focus and interest is on the early days of the Lee Metford. The LS have a place in 'the big picture' of the evolution of the rifle.

As I understand, there will be a book that will be out in the new year, we all wait with great anticipation as published reference material is scant.

[Jc5]

How funny....I know this rifle.... does it have two holes drilled in the top that have been filled in? PM me and I'll guess the serial number for you. If you plan on keeping it, I'll pass along a story or two about its history that you might someday want to pass on along with it.

For now, I can tell you that it was originally a pre-1914 No 1 Pattern Lee-Speed (the highest grade--evident from the engraving), but was rebarrelled with a military barrel (hence the broad arrow and '25 stamp). Original barrel was probably shot out. If you want to see what this rifle looked like when it was new, see Skennerton, page 112.

The buttstock is from an original commercial BSA sporter, but not original to that particular rifle---it most likely came from a 1920s era commercial Lee from BSA (which today is rare in itself), and the BSA patent safety was re-fitted to it. Someone went to some trouble to do that---not sure what happened to the original butt, but the receiver is cut with a slot to accommodate that safety. They also took the trouble to refit the original express sights to the replacement barrel. On the original barrel, the sling eye was located there (on the barrel)...when it was rebarrelled, they had to drill a hole in the fore-end and fit the sling eye there (similar to the way it was fitted on 1920s-era commercial Lee sporters).

My guess when I first examined this rifle years ago (in person) was that some owner was fond of it (who knows what adventures it was part of, in the far off places of the world), and made the effort to keep the rifle going by saving the original bits (safety, express sights) and refitting them to replacement parts when required...he obtained the best available replacement parts he could get hold of. He probably put a scope on it at some point. Also, it appears to be refinished, which again is evidence that someone liked this rifle enough to put work into it. A bubba job is what we call it when someone tries to save some money by using a handsaw in the garage---this rifle is not like that; on the contrary, someone sent some money to keep this old bird going. This was a rifle that got used in the field, I'm sure of it. I estimate that most of this work (probably all of it) was probably done in the 1920s or 30s, because the BSA butt stock would have been hard to obtain after that. The fore-end wood is original to the rifle (although it has more recently been polished up, you can still tell that the wood on fore-end and butt do not match).

So, not totally original, but still a nice commercial sporter; it looks better in person than it does in photos. Very handy and appealing. I know what you mean when you say it balances and feels RIGHT---felt the same way to me.