New Acquisition last week.........in need a of a little TLC.

[Roger Payne]

Last week a pal & I went up to Sheffield to visit an old friend who is shortly intending to give up his UK RFD. Over the years he has amassed various odds & ends & I was able to do a deal with him on 19 rifle barrels (mostly but not all SMLE), & a very interesting SMLE .22RF trainer. It is one of the type sleeved to .22 but left chambered for .303, using 'conveyors' to chamber the .22 rounds. The conveyors were made from steel, in the shape of a .303 round, but with a .22 chamber in the back end, & bored right through so that ten conveyors could each be loaded up with ten RF rounds & the .303 magazine used as in the full bore rifle.

One can imagine the various problems that might arise, with obturation, steel conveyor against the inner surface of the chamber, & so on. Not surprisingly they didn't last long before they were replaced. The No2 Mk4* wasn't a repeater, but it was a much simpler affair with far less to go wrong.

In over forty years as a dealer, this is only the third rifle of this pattern that I have had go through my hands. Sadly, all three had been smoothbored so that they could be sold on UK shotgun certificate authority, so I must get the barrel re-sleeved. I am very lucky in that I have a pal in the trade who is a dab hand at sleeving & he is doing several No2 Mk4*'s at the moment for me (they had suffered a similar smoothboring fate). You can see this rifle had also been magazine restricted, but I'm happy to say that since the photo's were taken a couple of days ago I have carefully cut out the plate, & just need to dress up the 'scars' a little.

So, it still needs work done on it, notably re-sleeving back to a rifled barrel, but I'm hoping it will be back as it should be by the end of the year. The woodwork isn't shown, but is that lovely 'used but not abused' period walnut.

Hope it may be of minor interest to one or two of you. And apologies for the state of my work bench!

P.S. I think I have a couple of conveyors......somewhere, but if anybody has any for sale.......Well, I'd love to hear from them!

[browningautorifle]

Interesting old pieces...and yes, it's quite a "Mass" you have on the bench.

[Roger Payne]

Just had a rummage in the GR & amazingly the couple of conveyors that I thought I had were indeed where I thought they were! That's unusual! There are three there, but someone has spoiled one by over boring the chamber end to what looks about .32". It is the one on the left. The other two look good.......

And yes, 'mess' probably describes it better than 'mass'. If I tidied up I'd never be able to find anything.........

[browningautorifle]

And yes, 'mess' probably describes it better

A term I learned to use for other guys' workshops, they usually swear they know where everything is as is...

over boring the chamber end to what looks about .32"

So...this one COULD be redone with an insert. Fill, bore and chamber. But what do you have at the end? You say they don't really work anyway...

[Roger Payne]

I'd just like to have a few conveyors, so as to be able to fill the mag., although I wouldn't want to shoot it regularly.......more of a collector's item. A development blind alley, if you like.

[Surpmil]

A step on the road to the sub-calibre adapter?

[Alan de Enfield]

At somewhat of a tangent the 'chamber adapters' seemed to be all the vogue at one time.

I have a couple of ".303 British S.M.L.E Enfield Calibre Convertion Sleeves".
Rifled to Caliber 4 X 6 mm Flobert (1920) or 4 mm ZENTRALFEUER RWS.
Made by Tauler - Master (Madrid) circa 1940 ?

[Surpmil]

On a practical level one can see the problems: adaptors being flung about by ejectors and lost if on grass or damaged if on concrete. A case catcher would have been needed really.

[Lance]

You have a very interesting rifle there Roger! Is the barrel matching the body? Either you have a very early .22 Pattern 1918 made on a previously marked .22 Pattern 1914 No. 2 body or one that was later fit with a .22 Pattern 1918 barrel and ejector in the field. Conveyors are very hard to locate, I am still hunting to complete my required 10 and I am a long way off!

[Salt Flat]

Roger, What method is used to retain the liners? Also I must admit to having the same bench organization as you. I have heard that this is a sign of genius as the ideas come much faster than the hands can work.