Greetings and Salutations! Another night like tonight and I’m declaring both Bankruptcy and Obesity, all in one fell swoop. Reason being that tonight we celebrated Sapper finishing off his job with a BIG dinner out at a very Pricey Steakhouse.
Specifically the Terra Gaucha Brazilian Steakhouse in downtown Tampa. Five Stars man…
$100 a person. MAD Pricey. BUT A big Celebration means a big meal at a great restaurant.
This’s one of the traditional places that it’s all you can eat meats/seafood. The servers run around with fresh skewers of meat, and carve it off onto your plate. And ALL of the meat is top-shelf stuff… I won’t even begin to describe it… let’s just say I done et five full different critters tonight: Cow, Pig, Chikin, Shrimp and Lamb.
Good thing I’m in shape. ROUND is a shape right? So thus is the tardiness of Ye Olde Postage tonight, for which I apologize. (That and the Crème Brule was off the motherfucking chain baby!!!!)
So I finished scrubbing the Canuckistan Enfield today.
I took off what rust I could without utilizing the usual chemistry that would have also removed everything down to the bare metal. As I said, once it’s ‘proofed’ for firing, then we’ll do the raffle. This is the BEFORE cleaning, just as I had received it from GunGirl last week:
And then, the AFTER Cleaning, with the wood completely refurbished, but still with it’s ‘battle scars’ and personality:
Noticeable difference Aye? It’s a LOT cleaner The wood is by far in better shape than I originally expected, what with the Ethernopian Infestation. As you can see, the butt came out really well as you can see before and after:
I left the bore-holes intact, as they are part of the history of this thing. And the front? Well, I added a toy for it:
Part of the various changes that were done going from the Mod3, the SMLE, one of them was they got rid of the horse-killing extra HUUUUGE bayonet. Instead they ‘went cheap’ and introduced the spike bayonet. The one above is an early single-piece milled McStabby Stabber. Later they went with welded two-piecers that were cheaper and faster to make.
And yes, it fits:
The bayonet was actually WAAAY grosser to clean than the rifle. THAT was in a BLOCK of Cosmo I swear. It STILL has some oozing out from the nooks and crannies. It is however, fully operational and a legit milled 1942 produced spike. It’ll go to the winner of the Raffle, as well as some speed loaders, and a sling. I can’t send one of these babies out under-equipped.
So yep. Gonna try to go and test ALL three tomorrow if I have MY way about it. The one I’m truly excited for is the Springfield. THAT smoke pole looks to be just vicious fun. I may even bring a pineapple or something to the affect to see if I can hit it and blow it the hell up.
So that’s it for tonight. I swear I’m in a meat -coma. More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations! It’s only Monday? Seems like after this weekend it’d be at least Wednesday.
Or at least have the courtesy to pretend it’s a later day of the week. I passed out it seems in the middle of polishing/cleaning up the stock parts of the Canuck Rifle. Woke up at 0409 when my neck got a crick in in it, and I managed to drag my carcass off to bed.
Only to wake up 3 hours later for the Wash/Rinse/Repeat
Except I got a LOT of good work done on the rifle.
Thus being the case. BEFORE sanding/washing:
Then, I applied a heavy scrub with Murphy’s Cleaner, and popped the whole thing into the dishwasher. I set it for Pots and Pans, High Heat, with Heated Dry. The various parts came out looking like this:
After which I did my 600/800/1000/2000/2500 grit sanding of every single part. A few areas I had to go as low as 320 grit, in the case of ‘splintered’ areas, but thankfully those were minimal. Once everything was ‘scraped down’ I hit it with two coats of Walnut Stain, just like I did with Rifle #1:
That was left overnight, being allowed to be completely dry today. Now, the one ‘bothersome’ piece, the top ridged handguard? I managed to fill it, and stain the filler (a bit too dark but hey, no one is perfect) and get it ready for today’s cleanup:
Once I started cleaning everything up, I hit the ridged guard first, as I wanted to see how it came out with that big-assed crack in it:
Oh that’s just fine.
In fact, after polishing ALL of the pieces-parts of the stock, I’d have to say I did a pretty damned good job overall if’n I do say so myself:
Here’s the butt:
Then the mid-area of the rifle
And lastly the front:
As you can see the original finish is still on the majority of the metal. The wood is also far lighter, almost a blonde-ish color as opposed to Brit Rifle #1. It is apparent that the wood on Rifle #2 is in better shape despite the edibility of the stocks to the local Ethernopian Bug Population.
So now, again, I wait.
In this case for a safety, the front sight guard screw, and a main firing pin spring which is pretty much all this thing needs. Once those come in, I’ll finish up the cleaning up/rust removal, and decide WTF to do next. Restore to Factory or not.
And while I was waiting, a bunch of pieces-parts and fiddly bits came in for the Smoke Pole, to include the ammunition. The finish on the parts that came in is exceptional, and overall this’s a really pretty rifle. It’s missing the rear sight, as $250.00 for it is WAAAAY out of my current league, unless I sell the Enfield for a good premium to break even.
I’m unsure if it’ll fire safely, but I can NOT not try.
What do you think?
I had to step waaaaay back to get the whole thing in.
It’s over 52 inches overall, with a 32 inch barrel. The rear stock needed a lot of cleanup. It had hard impact white paint stains… my guess is ReadiFreddi’s FIL banged it around in the back of the closet it was stored in over the years. I cleaned it up, and thus:
…and like I said, the Lock and trigger assemblies?
Lord… I love weapons And pretty ones like this? OMG……. gorgeous.
So this weekend, fingers crossed, I’ll be testing ALL three. 2x Lee Enfields 1x Springfield Trapdoor.
And the ammo for this Smoke-Pole Gorilla Gun?
From Left to Right:
.45-70 500gn Cast Boolit .303 British 180gn Jacketed Hollowpoint 7.62.x51mm 174gn Full Metal Jacket 5.56x45mm 62gn M855 Full Metal Jacket
If I keep it, I’ll need to look at investing in the reloading dies and spare brass for it. Reloading keeps it to less than $1.25 a round whereas the over the counter?
$5.38 a round. OUCH! That leaves a mark.
Lastly: I didn’t hear many voats one way or another for the rifle I’m going to dispose of? Raffle? Direct Sale (pending test fire of course) Silent Auction? Let me know!
Greetings and Salutations! Slept in quite a spell today… didn’t get out of the rack until 10pm! Gretchen was up and running as she had to return the Redhead, but me? I got to rest which was a nice change of scenery. She then had to go up to her Parent’s place and check in up there, leaving me to myself!!!
And the new Enfield of course. Which I present now:
Now as seen before, it’s a 1942 Long Branch Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk 1*. It’s seen better days as you’ll see as we go over it together. The stocks are in a wee bit better shape than the first No. 4 I just finished working on, but still has some issues wood wise. In particularly on the rear stock:
The problem isn’t as much on the right side facing, as much as the left:
Something found the left side to be ‘tasty’ if you will… Those ‘dots’ are boreholes. To jump a bit ahead, I did (nominally) find what I think it was that did the munching:
This pic is from as I did the disassembly. When I removed the trigger/guard assembly, I found some sort of larvae corpse sitting in a bunch of chewed up wood on the barrel band.
That lil thing leads me to believe that at some point these were stored somewhere where the local wildlife could get at them… Anyways… to continue the overview:
There’s a few differences from the 1941 Model. Here’s the 1941:
The ’42 (top pic) is missing the bolt release that the ’41 has. That’s the little spring loaded metal tab located behind the charger bridge (where the speed loader fits in from the top). A better pic:
With the bolt to the rear, you can now see the little ‘tab’. To remove the bolt, you lift the ladder sight up, and before you fully pull the bolt to the rear, you push the tab down, and then pull the bolt fully to the rear while still holding the tab down. You release the tab, and it ‘pops’ the bolt face up and out of the bolt ribway, allowing it to rotate out, and then you can remove the bolt by sliding it all the way back and out.
The ’42 is missing this. In fact, the receiver has a small ‘cut’ at the front where the bolt meets the barrel that allows you to rotate the bolt head out of the bolt ribway/track if you will. Again, jumping ahead:
That little notch cut into the front… And yeah… as I took this thing apart, it was gross folks. Truly funky and crusty….
Another ‘minor anomaly’ is the bolt handle. The 1941 has a chunk shaved off on the handle leaving a flat profile, whereas the ’42 has a fully rounded head. No idea.
Now as far as the rest of the wood? Well the longitudinal cuts on the 1942 model upper wood are exceptionally well defined as opposed to the 1941:
There is a BIG problem however:
That’s a GIANT honking crack running almost the entire length of the piece.
It’s not unsurmountable, more of just a pain in the ass, as the wood there is far too thin to use the brass pin trick, so I’m going to have to rely on good ole Elmer and his wood gloo.
The rest of the rifle, the nose and sight guard are dirty and finish-free, but serviceable.
The only concern I have on the front is the guard retaining screw, the head is reeeeeally worn (like I could barely get the screwdriver to catch and bite so to speak), so I might replace it with old/new stock, as the shipping will cost more than the screw, probably about $10.
The bore is really filthy too, so I have no way to really tell until I can soak it and scope it. Right now? Ye Olde Field Gauge worked just fine, so it headspaces, and the Field Bore Test:
The bullet doesn’t go completely in, so that’s a good sign. Like I said, as it cleans up, and I test it, we’ll have a better idea.
And as I was tearing it down, I found that originally, this one too had the Brit-Black finish, as one can see from the now-exposed barrel, as well as that gigunda crack on the top wood again:
Another oddity on the 1942, is that there really isn’t any significant markings on it… like hardly any stamps, either Armorer Marks, no other identifiers. The only markings really is the wrist Serial Number, 14L1069 and the previously posted pic:
Now looking at the databases, this was manufactured in September of 1942 per the production run schedule. The interesting thing? The Long Branch Arsenal is located in Ontario, Canada 20km outside of downtown Toronto, which produced Lee Enfield-pattern rifles for the Canadian military during World War II among other stuff like the Sten Gun.
So looks like I got me a Canoehead Enfield.
Unfortunately the only other serial numbered part is the bolt, and it doesn’t match:
The bolt is of Canadian manufacture (the ‘L’ gives that away) but the 344 makes it an oddball. And speaking of the bolt, it tore down and cleaned up pretty well:
The only concern here is the firing pin spring, which looks a wee bit compressed. I need to recheck it:
So, it’s torn down completely now.
I’ve started doing the same treatment to restore the stock wood back to the same as the 1941 and I’m in the process of rust removal and general metal cleanup. My concern right now is removing the rust without removing what little is lefrt of the original Brit-Black finish.
I already know how I’m doing it, so no worries, it’s just going to be exceptionally labor intensive.
MY BIG QUESTION TO YOU ALL THOUGH: Raffle it or sell it outright? Someone said do a blind bidding auction?
Let me know in the comments.
And whomever the winner is will get it as they want it Fully Restored like I did the 1941, complete with a new finish OR Leave it cleaned up but in ‘Worn and Torn’ status?
This of course provided that the sucker shoots mind you. Everything rests on that. So as I said, let me know in the comments. More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutatio…..zzzzzzzzzzzzz… Uh Huuuuuh!?! Whuzzat?? Oh… sorry… nodded off for a second there…
You’d be beat all to Hell too if you had to chase after the AD-HD Hyperactive Nookular Redhead going ‘critical’… Just add sugary cereal or an Egg McMuffin (or the home-made facsimile of one) and let her off the leash…
Whew…
Killer Day. We ALL had fun. Sapper wore his Multicam Wizard hat that he got!
He got me one too, but unfortunately it’s waaay too smol.
We’re going to have to exchange them or swap them out or something. Mine came in at size 60, and I wear like a 64.5 dammit. The morning also had it’s own special kind of Hell… which was the “Labor of Love” of Lacing Up Gretchen’s corset.
How the Hell them broads wore those every. single. day. back in the day baffles the shit out of me. The corset itself is a very expensive gift I got her on like Date #3 which was going to the Ren Faire back in Tampa in 2017. She had a corset, (emphasis on had) however….it was a cheap Chinesium one with plastic ribs.
Midway through our day at the Faire, there was an audible “crack” and suddenly her left titty was out on full display. No bra of course with the corset mind you, so she had to gather up one of the ‘girls’, which pre-Cancer was running an F Cup, so quite a substantial piece of bewbage.
That was back when I was making great ducats, so immediately we went to Ye Olde Corset and Bustier Shoppe, and they outfitted her on the spot.
To the tune of $350 smackers.
Tell you what though, it’s lasted. QUALITY handmade with real bone supposedly. She wore it the entirety of her NFL Career as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers Pirate Crewmember:
One of my favorite pics of her.
THAT was a gig let me tell you. She’d come home positively wiped out after running her ass off ALL over the stadium. When I’d help undress her, when the corset came off, it usually ‘splashed’ when it hit the floor she’d sweated so much. Funny thing today? We found the same Shoppe, and the lady running it remembered Gretchen and the ‘Tale of the Runaway Boobie’…. a fun moment.
Anyways…
Long of the short of it, we had a blast. The Redhead got her face painted:
Which came out great:
Snaggly Grin and them Baby Bloos man… She’s still needing a couple of fangs to come out. Anyways… And she loved the Jousting.
The ‘usual storyline’ of “Good Knight Versus Bad Knight” she really got into, and at one point /ourguy (who happened to be the “Bad Guy Knight”) started ranting about wanting the duel to go “To the DEATH!!!” The crowd picked up on the chant “To the DEATH! To the DEATH! To the DEATH!”
The Redhead, much to the consternation, and maybe even shock? of the Elderly couple standing next to us who, not five minutes before were complimenting me on my “…beautiful daughter, and how ladylike she was!” to looking at me in horror, as the Redhead had joined the chant and was in a full-throated frenzy calling for a hand-to-hand sword battle as stated before, to the death…
I shrugged. meh. Normies. How do you explain it to them that she’s already becoming seriously based and well trained at a early age? All I can say is I looked at them , grinned my biggest psycho-level Cheshire grin, and said, “I’m sooooo proud!”
The day ended well, and we all came home pretty well wiped. We did pizza as there t’weren’t no way in Hell I was cooking Jack nor Shytte. Not after this day!
And then to just finish out the day properly, Red smashed 5 slices out of an 8 slice medium 14in pizza on her own.
Dayyum!
The kid ate like she had two assholes I swear.
So it was a great day. One for the books as they say. WRSA said it best: “Cherish the days, amigo.”
I/We most certainly are my Brother. We most certainly are.
Greetings and Salutations! Gun Addiction: It’s Real. My name is Big Country, and I’m a gun addict… Yep. I went down today to drop off the paperwork for Lee Enfield Number 3 for the restoration/raffle project(s) that I’ve been doing. I unfortunately got delayed in doing so via a V.A. follow up appointment, and then add on the ‘usual Friday Commute Hijinks’ that ensued. As I was going into the V.A. up towards Big Bend, there were a huge number of fire trucks, police, ambulances… you name it all seemingly converging on the V.A. itself.
I got in just in time for my appointment, and it seems the fire as it was, was at the Self-Storage place next door to it. By the time I got out of the car and started hiking across the parking lot, MORE fire trucks and whatnot were coming in, as well as News Helos and the Sheriff’s Helo for good measure. Big billowing clouds of black smoke, so yep, a for-real fire and not a bad electrical false alarm.
By the time I got done 40 minutes later, the smoke was no longer billowing, although there was that acrid ‘smell’ of a fire in the air… not the ‘nice’ fire either but that chemical-melted plastic stank fire…
And 301 was a full-on fucking Parking Lot.
So much for ‘quick errands.’
Because of this, and the fact that due to my previous ‘legal entanglements’ the background check hadn’t cleared by the time Gun Girl was closing up shop. Guess I’ll get it tomorrow.
I did get to look it over however.
It’s a 1942 No 4, Mk 1 Long Branch.
It too is in exceptionally cruddy condition. Like caked with crap. The serial number on the bolt, as far as I could see, does not match, and the magazine has no serial number on it at all. There isn’t a lot of rust, but like I said, it IS crapped up pretty heavily.
The rear stock (which I forgot to take more pics of the thing dammit) is also about a 1/2 shorter when placed side by side with the one I worked on before, the BSA Matched Numbers rifle. I think at -some point- in Ethernopeian, some Starvin’ Marvin shortened the stock to fit his underfed frame. Whoever did it, well as of now it looks like they did a decent job on it. I realized this when I set both the refurb next to the new ‘rifle on deck’ so to speak as I brought in the refinished one to show off to Gun Girl per her request. Plus I will admit, I also do enjoy the accolades of the old timers who hang out in the shop on the regular.
Seems I’m gaining a reputation among the gunnies in the A.O. as being the go-to guy for these sorts of restorations, and GG also told me that one of the customers was asking if I’d sell the SMLE and to set my price.
Hmmmn. This may bear looking at as a full time side-hustle methinks. It’s convincing Gretchen that’s going to be the bitch. Finding and tripping over weapons and piece-parts and fiddly-bits is de facto a part of The BCE Casa. I mean the look on Sapper’s face when he went to empty the dishwasher and found the stock parts from the Lee Enfield in it was epic. He then grumbled something along the lines of “Rifle parts in the dishwasher? Of course! Why not? Only in this house…” and finished removing the pieces-parts as well as the dishes that went through the cycle…
Oh yes, also speaking of The Sapper… Give him some congrats and kudos for finishing up his job with the Unnamed Fuel Company that he’s been with for the past 4 years. He gave his two week notice two weeks ago (duh!) and finished today. The job was a stone-plated bitch, but he gutted it out. His reason for resigning is he’s prepping to leave this battle-space, and head back to the MidWest to be by HIS Grand, MiniMegaMind.
3M as I call him ‘cos as the kid has a HUGE squash and the brainpower behind it. He’s about 6 months younger than the Redhead, and when they (3M and Sapper’s Boy) come to visit, 3M and the Redheaded Nook get along like gangbusters.
Fuck. I’m losing my right arm man… Happy for him, but just…. fuck.
I mean it’s not like a forever Adios. But still, he’s been my stronk Right Arm/Gray Man/Hitman for nigh on 9 years now… this’s going to take some adjusting to.
Maybe run an Ad?
“Minion Wanted: Morals Optional, Bloodthirsty a plus. Odd hours. Must be able to lift a male body (200+/- lbs) and carry at least 100 meters. Must be proficient with small arms and a shovel. Prior DotMil experience a plus.”
Something to that effect.
So that’s what got for tonight. We have to get the Redhead in the A.M. and head out for the Ren-Faire which is her first time for this… got me a hunch the experience is going to overload her, but hey, what the Hell. Pics and stories to follow.
How about you? What you got planned for the weekend? More Later Big Country
Greetings and Salutations! Well, all the wood has been dealt with. The staining took two days worth of coating and soaking/drying, at which point this was the result this A.M.:
This’s just one piece, the main lower, but as you can see, it got dark with the walnut stain I used. Here’s a close up:
Then I polished it gently pretty much all day while working… working from home allows me a certain leeway in what I can do while on the phone. The wood, once hit with the stock sheen and conditioner, came out like this:
Niiiiice eh? Well… the overall full piece ended up looking like this:
I’d call that a good recovery…
It’s been a LOT of work per usual… not as much as the SMLE, which needed MASSIVE rust removal and reconstruction and fitment of the replacement pieces parts and fiddly-bits. This was more of a straightforward clean/restore… I ended up going with a ‘simulated’ Brit-Black as it originally had.. a plain matte black engine paint that the boards recommended.
Personally, I think it looks spectacular. As the wood still has it’s original ‘personality’ so to speak, and it’s just been cleaned up and essentially depot-level restored, well… you tell me:
Considering how it started:
I’ll take the “W” on this.
What say you?
The only thing left is to test fire it, hopefully after work tomorrow. I’ll follow up with you all after the test. I know it’s a shooter, but the question is how good a shooter?
And as a heads up, I got another #4 that just got shipped which will be ‘up for grabs’ after I get it in and get it done. I think it’ll be here either Friday or Monday… We’ll figure out if I’ll do a raffle or just a straight out purchase/sale to one of y’all. Then we can figure out if it’ll be a restore/clean/rebuild or what based on the ‘dealer’s choice so to speak…
Greetings and Salutations! So I took a LOT of y’alls advice regarding the Enfield Stocks. Took a few hours and a bunch of ‘things’ happened in the meantime. I ended up in the E.R. as that pinched nerve in my neck went into ‘crippling pain’ and I couldn’t move.
Like literally.
It’s part of the damage from my original injury that ended my DotMil career. Cervical 5-6-7 took a 10k vertical axial load dump when the main barrel of the tank got dropped on me. The brachial nerves took a squish, and I’ve had all the treatment I can pretty much for over 25+ years. Occasionally things get bad, but yesterday was the worst on an order of “hasn’t been this ouchie since the original injury”
They squared me away at the VA however. Bunch of shots/meds and I’m operational again. Higher than normal, but operational. I can at least turn my head, and chew again (plus side) as well as lift my arms above my waist and can type, which was not an option after 2pm yesterday. I got home and crashed, and then well, I’ve got a slew of new appointments to check just what went wrong, as this was far beyond the ‘normal’ flare up or slippage of discage I’ve had in the past. I’ll keep you up to date as we go.
As far as the rifle stocks? Well… this’s the ‘after’ of a LOT of steam, and a couple go-rounds in the dishwasher:
The rear stock is a WORLD of different is color now, with the original being this:
The dents are, for the most part out (the minor ones) but as you can see, it still looks like the poor thing was chained to the bumper of a pickup, and dragged down a gravel road. Now I -could- as one of you suggested, sand the ever-lovin’ shit out of it and try that. Thing is, is just how much sanding is it going to take to get that looking better?
Too much IMO. And as far as ‘the personality of the weapon’? This thing at this point isn’t so much a restoration as it is a ‘rescue’ as I don’t think many would be willing to go this far on such a trashed out set of stocks. Granted they’re the original and theoretically ‘serviceable’ but man, they’re ‘beat-on ugly-ugly’.
When do I call it and do a full on replacement? Tough call. Let me know your thoughts, as I have given it “Ye Olde College Try” and well, sometimes you have to just say “It’s dead Jim!” The last attempt I’m going to do now I think is re-staining with some dark stain, and a matte finish with some poly to seal it, and if it comes out ok, well then great. If not? Well it’s not like these are hard to find right?
Next on the list: The Springfield Trapdoor.
ReadiFreddi the OtherGran, had given it to me to see what I could do with it. So I had put a stupidly low bid offer on eBay for the Lock Assembly that I never expected the guy to accept. He wanted like $200 for it alone. Including S&H I got it for a little over $150 and it’s in exceptionally good condition with as advertised 90% or better of the original brownish finish, with full functionality.
It fits beautifully in it as well:
The ‘US Springfield’ stamp with Eagle is quite prominent still, and it needs a lil scrubbing I think just to clean it up -very lightly- and it’ll be fine. It fit, as stated before, perfectly no wiggle room, and it only took very light thumb pressure to put it in place. The hammer also meets up right where it should on the trapdoor.
Maaaaaaaan It IS like having a Crack/Heroin/Meth Addiction.
I can’t wait for the next pieces parts to show up to clean up and affix to the greater part of the rifle and give me my next ‘fix’. I think the next part coming in is the butt plate w/door and screws. That looks like it’s going to need a lot of scrubbing, as the pics show a lot of rust. I’ll further evaluate as needed. Then the only remaining parts are the trigger assembly (trigger and guard) w/screws, the Lock Screw Set, primary main screw, and the top rear primary sight w/screws.
That rear sight is a ‘wait and watch’ however. The least expensive one out there starts at like $130 and goes up from there (for a serviceable one… rusty junk is available, but I want one that’s out of the box ready to play if you will). The other reason is there are SO many different models that this thing could and did have…
Add on that every single screw seems to NOT come with the part it’s intended to, but the majority of sellers are selling the screws as sets, but for what I consider extortionist prices… $30 for the Lock Screws… $15 a throw plus shipping. Unfortunately, these are the only players that are at least NOT gouging the hell out of people…
Older rarer collectible gun parts are MUY EXPENSIVO!
Hence why I compare this hobby to a crack addiction.
Thing of it is? If I get the Springfield up and running? The rounds to it are like $5 a throw. Only Buffalo Bore sells them…
$86.00 per box, plus S&H.
This’s going to be a ‘one off’ test, and if I find that it’s cool to shoot, maybe another box, and then I’ll do the reloading on it, as they have on the website the reduced loads that it needs to be properly done. Hell, have a ‘Pancho Villa’ Leather Boolit Cross Chest holder done by the guy I go to for leather holsters and ‘stuff’ on Etsy LOL
I mean let’s face it… adding a fucking Moose Killing Rifle that shoots a 500 grain cannonball does have it’s sexy appeal.
Sure… a bit on the slow side, but would YOU want to be getting clobbered by one of those things ? While wearing a vest? With Level III plates? I envision a guy getting hit by one of these in the chest the same as someone dropping a bowling ball on a PB&J sammich.
All the squishy goodness squirts out the edges.
Because fuck you, fuck your plates, and fuck the guy behind you and HIS plates as well. Plus how cool is it to be The Guy Who Uses a 134/141 year old Rifle as a Home Defense Rifle? I’m really looking forward to getting BOTH rifles up and running in a short period of time.
Greetings and Salutations! SO the rifle is in the ‘wait and see’ part of things. As you’ll see in these picture(s), I cleaned up the pieces-parts on it, and unfortunately, the finish is completely shot through on almost every exposed metal piece, to include the receiver.
Seeing that the original was done in the aforementioned “Brit-Black” paint, I’ve decided to stick with the original wood, but do a “Brit-Black” equivalent on the metal, as otherwise, it’ll just look ‘junky’.
Now the stocks originally, the butt in particular, looked like this:
After a full tear-down, and getting ‘my scrub on’ it now looks like this:
I used a heavy degreaser to start with to remove the cosmoline, as you can see in the first pic was bad, then I used Murphy’s Oil Soap and a DotMil issued Blue Bristled rifle brush to scrub on it. LOTS of grime came off, and as you can see, with the grime gone, it revealed a LOT more scratches/pitting and whatnot.
I then hit it with some Pledge deep restoration oil overnight, and finished off with Lemon Pledge Furniture polish, which didn’t appear to do a lot. I do not want to try and re-stain it, as that might mess the color up… so I’m in a quandary.
Sand it down with some fine grit, and then re-stain it? OR Just keep it ‘as is’ and give it a could or six coats of thick sealing oil, and then call it a day? OR lastly, re-sand it, re-stain it, and reseal it with a low-gloss lacquer? Your thoughts?
The other question I have, and maybe one of you deep Enfield Fanbois can tell me, but what’s the significance of the brass tack on the left side of the stock? I’ve been looking, and can’t find anything, anywhere that tells me this’s a marker or ‘official’ marker:
Nary a clue here But it’s ‘original’ to the rifle that I can tell. The butt-plate got some love too today. Because this’s an early pre-acceptance weapon, it’s brass with all the proper fittings.
That’s staying ‘as-is’ And the inside got cleaned out as OMG, the brass green verdigris buildup was OMG really really bad. You can see where I had to chisel it out and scrape it out to get to the pop-open door:
That’s about as clean as it’s getting. Then, the other pieces parts have been prepped for the mini-paint booth:
As I stated early on, those were ONLY cleaned. NOT scrubbed nor hit chemically or anything else. The finish is down to pure metal for the majority of things
So the plan is to hit it tonight with the initial coating, and revisit it tomorrow for touch ups and second coats as necessary.
THEN re-assembly and by next weekend if I have my druthers, a test fire. If all goes well, I’ll be a happy camper over the weekend. This one by rights -should- go better than the Spanish Mauser.
And so lastly via WRSA and a few other folks, Matt Bracken had some very good points that summarized both his and my opinion regarding Drones and “The Death of The Infantry as a Viable Battlefield Maneuver Group” His full article can be found on his substack HERE
Now, between my comms with Don Shift, author of “Poor Mans Air Force” (link HERE) and a few other discussions, it’s becoming readily apparent that /ourguys need to if not embrace but at least know the basics of Drone Warfare. Don and I started by talking about our gear loadouts when I put up some pics for him to see just how his book had expanded my kit as well as learning curve:
This got into a whole discussion and Q&A on the various ‘stuff’ I was packing, and the ‘where and how’ that I had learned it.
The current “RF Detection Kit” mentioned is a spec-an that Brushbeater had recommended as a ‘drone detector’ that I’m still learning how to use. The phone that I use to control the drone itself is a ‘scrubbed’ unlocked Samsung S-22 with a burner chip in it, that allows me both control the drone on it, and to see out the drone’s 1080p camera, both front and bottom, but also allows me to record video onto the secondary Micro SD Chip for post-mission analysis (if the mission is recon).
The case is a MOLLE attachable multi-fold hard case that’s waterproof and configurable to whatever mission you need, be it Drone Control, or in the current picture, drone detection. BOTH have their uses.
And per WRSA, Bill Buppert got on ‘the bandwagon’ with this:
…as well as Jack Lawson, author of “The Civil Defense Manual Part One/Two”. I got an email from Jack stating he was including Commander Bracken’s drone article in his soon-to-be-updated versions. Be on the look out for them.
So it’s been a very busy time as of late for me, between weapons restoration, and conversations with some folks regarding the whole “Death of the Infantry”. As I stated in my article linked HERE “The Infantry is Dead (For Now)” published back in September of 2023 (a lifetime ago it seems).
As I said then, and it bears repeating: “…unless there’s an absolute paradigm shift in personal armoring, i.e. Mobile Mecha/Gundam/Mobile Infantry ‘Marauder Suits’ then the Infantry is going to be damned near finished in it’s traditional role.”
The Traditional Ground Pounder Grunts have finally hit peak obsolescence. Combat is, at best a “Darwinian Concept” where ONLY the best and fastest adapted ‘X’ (using as a fill-in for this example) will survive and thrive. And in the current real time moronitude of the Dinosaur Cold War Retards running the show?
Hear that? It’s a Fat Bitch Hollering/Singing. They just are either willfully ignoring it or completely dense as to the meaning of it.
It’s going to be an interesting upcoming decade to say the least. Stay Tuned!
Greetings and Salutations! Man I’m tired. I didn’t get to the rack until 0400 this past A.M. I swear it’s addictive to be stripping this thing down and working on it… Last night was very productive. I got the majority of pieces parts and wood stripped off of it, and a good portion of today was spent scrubbing and cleaning it up.
The magazine was one of the first things to get a scrub. It started looking like this:
And no worries, that’s not actually a live MK-19 40mm… It’s my med-container that I carry my meds in when I travel:
I got it for like $5 on Temu or someplace like that. I got it to add to my inert Grenade collection, which also includes a plushie “Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch” from Monty Python’s ‘Holy Grail’ flick. It even has a ‘talk toy’ inside that when you squeeze it, it does the whole bit of dialog on the instructions of how to use it… “Three is the number…”
Along with my plushie M-18 Smoke and M67 Frag.
Keeping the doggos away from those toys has been hard ‘cos the frag and smoke have a squeaky toy in them, and they get all excited when someone squeezes either of them…
I also just checked and it seems that they no longer make the Holy Hand Grenade plushie… I guess it was a limited edition thing maybe? I was going to link it too… Sorry about that! So to continue. The mag came out well:
The serial number came out clear as day now
Overall it’s still pretty worn with a LOT of scratches where it was riding inside this thing forever and a day I’d say:
The section that stays up inside the mag-well is in fine shape, but as you can see, the bottom half looks like it was hit with some serious dragging…
SO then I started stripping off the wood and other pieces-parts to start getting to the barrel itself:
Then I got the top wood off:
And then the bottom wood as well… When I then discovered that lo and behold!
SemperFi,0321 who’s a regular commenter here, was the one who said “Being an Enfield expert now you should know these rifles weren’t blued, they were fire blackened (heated and oil quenched) and painted with black enamel, as were almost all the WW2 British weapons.”
Sure as hell, he’s dead right. The barrel, which from what I can tell, has been sitting untouched under the stock(s) forever and a day… and is painted with the described black enamel:
And with this I also found that the barrel has a matching serial number as well, and the Armorer’s cartouche stampings when it was serviced:
It doesn’t have near as many as the Mark III, which makes sense to a point… This only as you can see has the 3, plus the bottom one which is the acceptance Crown Stamp.
This pic also gives you a glimpse of the filth I had to scrub off of it… here, let me show you:
I have no idea how long it was in Ethernopian hands, but man, they sure as fuck didn’t keep their shit clean… That’s all dirt imbedded in the cosmoline, with a healthy bit of ‘rust and crust’ as I call it…
That was all last night however… the trigger assembly needed to be beaten out of the weapon, as the crust was hard as a rock, and it sure as hell didn’t want to ‘come quietly’ so to speak:
I’m going to be cleaning that up tonight, along with the ‘fiddly internal bits’, and work on cleaning up the stock.
The “Project of Today” was mostly waiting for a new tool to show up. I had to order one of those loooong grabby claw tools for the butt.
Normally, Lee Enfields are supposed to have some leather disks stuffed up and into the butt stock recess hole to keep water and crap off the head of the BIG screw that affixes the butt to the receiver. On the SMLE, I was able to ‘hook’ the leather plug, and remove it with the long assed screwdriver I have. This one however didn’t have that.
Nope… as I found out, someone cut a corner and stuffed what appears to be some old rags or some shit up and in there at some point instead. The rough edges of the inside of the recess hole kept ‘catching’ the fabric, so I needed the specialized tool. It came overnight via the ‘Zon, and worked like a charm:
That was some nasty shit I’m telling you…
Last night I spent like an hour and a half trying to fish out that crap to no avail… and then I ordered Mister Grabby-Claw, and I got the job done is like 5 minutes after I opened the box the tool came in.
So now we’re back to the same question: Refinishing the rifle:
As it’s now confirmed that it was originally painted with the Brit Black Enamel. In this case it was called “Suncorite”. Suncorite was a early to mid war process. But to be done properly, it was applied over a bead blasted or tumbled finish, phosphated and then painted with over cured and hardened suncorite paint. It became the standard finish on British weapons up until it was finally declared obsolete back around 2010… quite a long time when you think about it….
According to a lot of sources, that paint was pretty gnarly chemistry-wise, as in not environmentally good and being exposed to it was also not-so-good. It sort of reminds me of the CARC paint we used on our vehicles back in the day. CARC standing for ‘Chemical Agent Resistant Coating’… I swear the fumes from that shit were toxic as Hell… one commenter on 1919A4 dot com who was asking what the best coating to replace the original because as said: “I know the original formula was made with cancer and AIDS and slave organs and is no longer available…” that shit cracked me up….
Closest thing according to the various boards I’ve been surfing is believe it or not, Brownell’s Aluma-Hyde. Even for-real British Armorers have chimed in and said that even these days, when working on some of the older weapons in their arms rooms (like some of the older machine guns) they hit with the Aluma-Hyde…
So some of y’all may scream, but seeing that right now I’m refinishing the whole thing I may as well go “Full Retard” and restore this thing to like-new status.
Also I forgot to mention, it made headspace, so it’ll fire.
I might even go for a full set of ‘like new-used stocks’ for the wood. I mean this one is ok-ish, but there are signs of dry-rot and a couple of serious dents and dings in it. I mean I did some checking and as some of you pointed out, the value is so-so, even though it’s an all matching numbers weapon.
I mean I need to seriously think on this…
So I’ll continue to update you on the rifle as it goes. Like I said, a LOOOONG night and a long-ish day as well. I also have some news regarding the Trapdoor Springfield as well… seems I may have spoken too soon regarding that, and well… I can’t just leave well enough alone don’t you know?
Having a inoperative/broken weapon laying around here makes me ‘itch’ so to speak…
So that’s tonights fun and follies. More Later Big Country
Greetings and Belated Salutations! So, it’s been a few days but OMG, I’ve been MAD busy. I’ve been dealing with the in-laws and that shitshow, the ‘regular’ daily shitshow’ and the Glorious Tractor Factory Shitshow.
I’m tired Worn the Hell out.
So hence, the past few days I just could not bring myself to Blegg. Add on that I’m exhausted. I’ve had some recent sleep issues, and as an attempt to alleviate that, I started trying, mind you trying, some Tylenol PM.
Which was a major no go.
That shit started some serious nightmare fuel level PTSD flashbacks while dreaming that I haven’t had in like 10 plus years. I have no idea what part of it did it, or what it combined with in the stew of chemistry that I already have in my carcass on the regular, but two nights of taking it, times two nights of waking up freaking out/yelling/reaching for a weapon on the night stand when there’s nothing there? While still fully asleep?
Yeah. Hard pass.
Add on the ‘stolen valor expose’ I was working on (and may yet do?) I was told by a source to stand down as part of what I personally had figured out is/was/is going to be part of a LARGER IRL case, and anything I may or may not have put out against the General Formerly In Charge might have given an ‘edge’ on his potential defense.
And yeah, I figured out General Milley is beyond dirty.
I have to leave it at that.
On advice of some folks faaar higher on the ‘active’ food chain who’re looking to ‘eat his ass for lunch’ both metaphorically and even possibly in reality. It’s still ongoing… It seems that occasionally even a blind intel-squirrel such as myself stumbles on an ‘active nut’ so to speak…
Oops…
So, instead, I’m going to entertain you with the newest toy slated for a restoration:
The Lee Enfield Model 1, Mark 4.
This was the successor and next model AFTER the SMLE, the Short Magazine, Lee Enfield Model 1, Mark 3 that was the predominant weapon in World War One, and well into World War Two. The rationale for the development of the Mark 4 was financial and the simplification of the manufacturing of the Lee Enfield overall. Mark 3’s were $$$ comparatively speaking… Like $5 BritPounds more, but when you’re talking about millions of rifles, you’re talking real monies.
Initially introduced in the early 1930’s, it (the Mark 4) wasn’t put into full production until 1942. Now… per the Wiki Chart, here’s the basic timeline for the production:
Now the * (star) on that chart actually indicates a * on the Rifle Stamp itself. It means that that particular rifle was an ‘improved’ version of the Mark rifle that it was stamped on.
The SMLE I have is marked a 1939 (pre-war) has “B.S.A.Co.” which stands for Birmingham Small Arms Company, and then “Sht. L.E III *” on the ‘wrist’ of the rifle as well as the year of manufacture:
The “G.R.” stands for Georgius Rex, or King George the 5th, the king of the time.
Now, guess what arrived today after being ordered back in Mid-December? Well… let me show you, in detail:
It’s dirty It’s (currently ugly) BUT I hope y’all are ready to see this a lot, as now, I have a Lee Enfield Mod 1, Mark 4 ready for restoration. And let me tell you, I need some input from you all deplorables.
Before I get too deep, let me show you what we have, from the rear to the front and back again in pics, so you can see what I’m dealing with, and what I have to work with. Picture #1:
The wood so far, outside of some dings, seems like it’s in good shape. More on that on the other side where I have some minor concerns (more on that later).
The action itself as well as ALL the metal on this thing is currently nasty/gross with crusty cosmo, as well as an oil/sand combination. I wore gloves the entire time I handled it.
Outside of a MASSIVE amount of cosmoline, as well as ‘general storage funk’ it’s in damned good shape. It does NOT appear to be missing any parts which is a nice change from the “C-Grade” SMLE I got before, (which led to this ‘restoration addiction’ I swear)
The biggest issue outside of the funk, is that there’s a pretty significant loss of bluing on the majority of the rifle, which I’m going to go in depth on in a minute…
The rear sight is worn, but present, functional and intact, which is a nice change from the other rifles of this era I’ve seen:
The slider rotates freely, and the sight spring is, believe it or not, pretty tight for an 84 year old rifle… The bolt however, as you can see, has quite a bit of surface rust which is best seem when I dismounted it from the rifle:
Now, the bolt HAD (past tense as you’ll see in these pictures) a lot of surface rust on it. It still functioned and operated nicely with the rifle being as it is/was. The problem is, well, I cleaned it up, and a LOT of the original bluing ‘went away’ due to my cleaning, as seen in these pics. I first tore the bolt down completely to it’s pre-cleaned components:
Stripped down, you can see all the dirt and rust on the pieces/parts. I spent the better pat of an hour with some of the dental picks that Coelacanth sent me digging out encrusted ‘nasty’ from the nooks and crannies, as well as just generally getting “my scrub on” as this thing hadn’t been cleaned since World War 2 as far as I could tell.
Once I got everything clean, I reassembled the bolt, which now looks like this:
Now, this caused another problem One of which I need y’all’s input.
Let me start off by showing you the Serial Number of the rifle I’m now working on currently:
That’s “B4859” With a manufacture Year of 1941. The British Army didn’t start accepting the MK 4 until 1942
Therein lies the problem. This is one of the earliest pre-acceptance Lee Enfield MK4s made. “B” indicates the Birmingham Small Arms Company located at Shirley, which was the only factory that was making the first ’round’ (3250 +/- made) of L.E. Mark Fours period. fucking dot. in 1941. The manufactory dates for the ’41 MK-4 ran from June of 1941 until December of 1941, with the serial numbers being started with “A” thru “B” with only a 4 digit S/N. Later variants started with a number, then a letter, and then a five digit S/N.
So this is one of the earliest MK 4 rifles made.
MY Problem: Check these out: The Bolt Handle S/N AFTER cleaning:
Yeah. Matches the ‘wrist’ of the main S/N. Damn
And then lastly (and possibly most amazingly) the magazine has a Serial Number as well… the Brits were pretty anal about ‘stuff’ like that, so on a Mark 4, the Serial Numbers were on the rifle’s ‘wrist’ (which was the ‘main S/N) and then on the back of the bolt handle, and lastly, on the magazine itself:
Holy Shit on a Shingle
I have a matching serial number early model Lee Enfield Model One, Mark Four.
What are the odds!?!
I mean I have no idea of the actual value, but I personally know that matching three/four or five serial numbers on a classic World War ‘X’ Weapon, no matter the conflict is A) as rare as hen’s toofuses, and B) usually worth a shitpot of money to collectors.
Hence my dilemma. ORIGINALLY I was going to refurbish this thing to like new, to include a duracoat finish, and make it a great classic daily shooter.
Now?
That might be out the window depending on the interest and if it cleans up and gauges correctly. I know a regular in GREAT shape Mark 4 can sell upwards of $800 dollars. I had no idea that I had pulled a ‘lottery ticket’ level rifle from Royal Tiger. The thing is that the bluing on this thing, that I can tell is utterly fucked and I have NO IDEA if I should reblue it, touch it up, or say “fuck it” and go for broke and DuraCoat it?
SO…………………….. what say you?
Right now, all I’m going to do is clean the fuck out of it, remove all the rust (and whatever finish that comes off with the rust is a “fuck it” cost of doing biddness), and IF I feel like I want to re-blue it/DuraCoat it/Hell, CeraCoat it, I will…
Despite the ‘potential value’………… I want to most importantly shoot it LOVE me some .303Brit Fuck all other issues. Opinions are welcome, phone lines are manned. More Later Big Country
