Unsure if this is of any interest or not.......

[Roger Payne]

I have recently been sorting through forty-odd years of accumulated junk with a view to giving my wife a slightly less onerous task to deal with if I fall off my perch before she falls off hers. I have sorted out about two dozen SMLE (largely but not exclusively BSA 1920's & 1930's production) barreled actions with a view to selling them off into the trade for someone keener than I to rebuild/deactivate, (or whatever). Among them I found one which is the major parts of an Ishapore rifle, with, I suspect, not terribly common butt socket markings. Is it just worth no more than a bog standard 'Ishy' or is it worth sympathetically rebuilding in view of the markings?

I would welcome people's views.

Information

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[Lee Enfield]

Rebuild it!

Cannot have been many marked that way...

Jan 20th to Dec 10th

is the barrel dated?

[Bindi2]

Rebuild it.
I have been on the lookout for a BSA or Enfield with that date.

[Alan de Enfield]

There certainly will not be many "Edwards" about - a good item for American collectors in view of the Mrs Simpsons involvement.

[Gil Boyd]

Historically I would do it Roger, then part with it to someone who is really keen to own it.
Ironically, I have been doing the same since Lockdown started, and there appears to be a lot of people buying up stuff who have time on their hands!!
Of course when you get close to 70 and over..................... time, is something you don't have a lot of or the physical presence, ie good eyesight for one!!

[Roger Payne]

Thanks chaps. Good to see you're unanimous on the course of action to be taken. It's kind of what I'd hoped you might say. I'm going to auction about 25 of these pieces, but have decided to keep back four; two BSA 39 MKIII's, a BSA 28 MkIII*, & the 36 Ishapore. I might stand a chance of getting four rebuilt, but not thirty......!

I'll check the barrel markings later - can't remember for sure, but I think it's probably the original barrel on it.

I sometimes wonder what other little gems may have been on the pile in the warehouse when I got these. I bought about forty, but there was over a thousand barreled actions in there.

[Thunderbox]

Thanks chaps. Good to see you're unanimous on the course of action to be taken. It's kind of what I'd hoped you might say. I'm going to auction about 25 of these pieces, but have decided to keep back four; two BSA 39 MKIII's, a BSA 28 MkIII*, & the 36 Ishapore. I might stand a chance of getting four rebuilt, but not thirty......!

I'll check the barrel markings later - can't remember for sure, but I think it's probably the original barrel on it.

I sometimes wonder what other little gems may have been on the pile in the warehouse when I got these. I bought about forty, but there was over a thousand barreled actions in there.

Roger,


Good luck with the ERI rebuild. Nice find; I'd certainly rebuild & retain that one for my own collection if I came across it. Ishapores don't get much attention in the UK market, but there are a few of us who'd build a collection - if we could find the rifles!


Any indication of where/when you might be disposing of the other barrelled actions? I've gathered enough wood & parts to build up quite a few rifles, so I for one would be in the market. Please don't let them go for de-act!


BR

[Roger Payne]

Have pm'ed you TB.

[Roger Payne]

Have checked the barrel & there may be additional markings hidden under the crud I have yet to remove, but I can't see a date, although the barrel is most definitely Ishapore, & I suspect it is probably the original. Have managed to find several NOS unserialed Ishapore bolt bodies among the general tat - a real bonus!

[Rick]

I have recently been sorting through forty-odd years of accumulated junk with a view to giving my wife a slightly less onerous task to deal with if I fall off my perch before she falls off hers.

Aside from your original question that appears settled, there's probably more of us here eyeballing the long dirt nap with a lot more time behind us than in front of us than not. Meaning a lot of wives out there that will probably be faced with dealing with what we think of as treasures left behind. A sack (bag?) of golf clubs is a lot easier to flog.

A few years ago I started a binder with a picture of each item, as much description as I feel would be helpful, and what the market price is at the time. I don't see myself as likely to head off to Valhalla to join my brethren anytime soon, but at I'm at the age where a few friends who seemed healthy enough have fallen to a jammer or something similar. It motivated me to do a little planning I would have put off for a few years yet.

Anyway the binder inventory thing as I look at it now for firearms, reloading, bullet casting, military surplus, flyrods, etc is pretty cool and should be an enormous help, hopefully decades from now.