Linley co 20 round magazine

[lithgow1918]

The picture is mine. I posted that picture of one of my No.1 MkIs and the 20 round mag either here or on the gunboards forum several years ago. The late tony Edwards used it in a lecture he gave, The SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) .303 Infantry Rifle
I wrote to Tony to ask that he give a photo credit on the slide, but sadly he had entered the final stages of his illness. Since then I have seen the photo circulating on the web a fair bit. My understanding is that about 120,000 were made. Some were used in some of the experimental semi-auto SMLEs, probably in the low double digits, if that many. Some were used in a few other experimental weapons, again I would guess in very low numbers. Most were scrapped. When I got mine I asked Ian Skennerton about them. He told me he knew of about 10 in private collections and maybe a few more than that in various museums. I know of one other one in the US.

I am aware of, from auctions at least two,one that sold at witherls(I think) on an smle with a trench stock and Flanders flap, and the one on the howell automatic rifle. In addition there is Paul breaky's which I suppose could have been one of the two but I doubt it. I tend to believe there are at least a few hidden in the woodwork, as recently/ currently there is a previously unknown one made for a no 4 going up for auction. I'm sorry to here about Tony's passing, I think I read something about it on a forum. From what I can tell he has contributed alot to the community, and is sorely missed.

[Lance]

One just sold last week at auction. I cannot remember the final price but it was way north of $1000

[Roger Payne]

Years ago they had one at Alfred J Parker's; I tried to prize it off Ma but she wasn't having it, as it was part of the family collection (mostly stuff that her father had amassed). At the end, when we got into the place with her niece & great nephew, it had disappeared along with a lot of other stuff. It may simply have been sold off to some lucky punter after Edna's death, when the shop was run for, but not by, her great niece. A lot of items were sold off then, & often at far lesser prices than Edna would have accepted!

I thought I read somewhere that the 20 rounders were ordered to be destroyed at some point following WW1, perhaps after being found unsuitable for the VB or derivative.......

[Daan Kemp]

Anybody have any ideas of making a 20 rounder from two magazines? I would love to have one for my shooting competitions.

[Nigel]

There is one of these in the Warminster collection. I've got some pictures on my desktop PC but it was quicker to go online. The mag is the 20 round SMLE mag. I once owned one of the leather pouches which held a single mag but swapped it for a No.2 MkIV.

[breakeyp]

For some strange reason, I don't have pictures of my magazine and leather carrier. For what it is worth, the leather carrier only holds one magazine.

[lithgow1918]

For some strange reason, I don't have pictures of my magazine and leather carrier. For what it is worth, the leather carrier only holds one magazine.

A leather carrier just sold for £350 on some militaria site and I saw pictures of it. It was tempting but other things called.

---------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:03 AM ----------

One just sold last week at auction. I cannot remember the final price but it was way north of $1000

Yeah, they keep going up. At one point apparently, they would go up on eBay with relative frequency, but it seems they have all fallen into collections at this point. I'd love to have one, but realistically the most I can spend on one now is like $500.

---------- Post added at 11:14 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:06 AM ----------

Years ago they had one at Alfred J Parker's; I tried to prize it off Ma but she wasn't having it, as it was part of the family collection (mostly stuff that her father had amassed). At the end, when we got into the place with her niece & great nephew, it had disappeared along with a lot of other stuff. It may simply have been sold off to some lucky punter after Edna's death, when the shop was run for, but not by, her great niece. A lot of items were sold off then, & often at far lesser prices than Edna would have accepted!

I thought I read somewhere that the 20 rounders were ordered to be destroyed at some point following WW1, perhaps after being found unsuitable for the VB or derivative.......

That's the main story I have heard. About the vb thing. The thing is I have yet to see a full picture of one so it's hard to say. One strange thing is that most of the survivors I have seen are in realtivly good condition. My suspicion is that most of them come from the 30,000 sent to weedon that were never issued. Although that's just speculation based on the few I've seen. Frankly I'd put my estimate of number in the collectors market at closer to 15 at it's height, with some having been taken by museums since.

---------- Post added at 11:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:14 AM ----------

Anybody have any ideas of making a 20 rounder from two magazines? I would love to have one for my shooting competitions.

If I were to attempt it, I might go the route of adapting a Vickers berthier magazine. It coul totally not work, but I've never heard of anyone trying. Apparently been mags aren't easy to covert.

---------- Post added at 11:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:18 AM ----------

There is one of these in the Warminster collection. I've got some pictures on my desktop PC but it was quicker to go online. The mag is the 20 round SMLE mag. I once owned one of the leather pouches which held a single mag but swapped it for a No.2 MkIV.

Thank you so much for the pictures. I've been wondering the model for ages. I am relatively new to the whole collecting thing, and I really appreciate everyone's willingness to help.

[Surpmil]

Given that they were loaded from stripper clips anyway, you might wonder why they didn't go for 15 rounders instead: some advantage with less disadvantage?

It would take quite a thumb to push the last clip in I suspect.

[lithgow1918]

Given that they were loaded from stripper clips anyway, you might wonder why they didn't go for 15 rounders instead: some advantage with less disadvantage?

It would take quite a thumb to push the last clip in I suspect.

Apparently they experimented with 15 rounders, although I suspect only having 5 extra wasn't deemed worthwhile.

[Melanie_Daniels]

This was sold on a German Arms fair - as a Vickers-Berthier magazine.Attachment 106540Attachment 106541