May I Present and Stay Tuned! More to Follow!

Greetings and Salutations!
Tell you what, my hands and fingertips hurt. I mean I’m already arthritic from life in general, but the marathon job I did sanding last night, on the pre-blooing to finish up the SMLE? Yeah, the sanding and constant pressure made the entirety of both arms from my elbows to my fingertips sore-sore-sore.

BUT: I do have this to show for it:

That was as I was getting ready to do the deed today. Hence why I was in the kitchen, as I was doing it over the sink so I could do the immediate rinse off as the Birchwood-Casey Super Bloo that I was using said that you needed to rinse ASAP with cold water.

I will say it went quickly…
I only did the receiver and barrel, to include the rear sight.
Personally, I think it came out rather well:

That’s a very nice deep blue IMO.
2x coats.
I might do more, but we’ll see how it wears.
I soaked it in the Barricade Oil, which it’s recommended to be soaked in overnight. Seeing that hey, I can still have it cure while I do other things I firgured what the Hell?

I’ve never been one for patience when everything is just sitting there, waiting on me right?

I present to you,
The Finished 1939 Short Magazine, Lee Enfield:

From Left to Right:

(I have the armorers chalk on-hand, and it really made the engraving ‘pop’ IMO)

And then back again:

A fully restored and ready for the range SMLE…
God I loved doing that.
I swear, I quit a few years ago, but right now? I feel like I could like up a smoke ya know what I mean? It’s like a post-nut glow feeling… Mission Accomplished and all that jazz…

Sapper was blown away.
Gretchen was impressed… didn’t even bat an eye when I told her “I want to do another one!“
My new immediate Commissar, who happens to be a British Expat who married an American Chick and just ‘got off the boat’ so to speak, is utterly fascinated and impressed. The Operations Commissar (formerly the IT Commissar) and I are planning on introducing him to the American Lifestyle of shooting large caliber weapons, and having fun with it. He’s genuinely curious and eager to learn, as his NewWife is a Florida Raised ‘Gun Girl’ and his FIL is an Air Force retired pilot who shoots a lot… so I guess he’ll get to fire this eventually…

Which IF I can find a box of .303 Brit around this A.O.

GunGirl herself is currently out of stock… she did have a few a ways back, and I figured she’s STILL have it, as how many jokers are looking for .303 in my area? Plus I didn’t want to drop the shekels until I knew for certain that this wasn’t just going to end up a pricey wall hanging. So when I called her today, she told me that about two weeks after I had picked up the Enfield, someone came in, and bought out her on-hand stock.

Dammit.

And I’m not happy having to pay the damned near extortionist shipping and handling for ammunition… leastways not for only a box or two… I’m torn on that…

Guess I’ll have to suck it up, as not even the local Bass Pro has .303 Brit. I mean it -is- an older oddball caliber… I see myself needing to get some dies and Bee-Bees for it in the near future. Seems the round needs a .314 to .318 bullet, and unless I crimp the neck down, and also sacrifice the fuck out of some accuracy, the .308 I have won’t work.

As you can see, I’ve been practically living on the various Lee Enfield Boards since I started this project. It’s also where I found out that this particular one is rare-rare in that I have ALL matching serial numbers. The nose-piece, the barrel and receiver, the trigger guard, and the rear sight piece ALL match.

The only non-matching piece is the bolt body, as the original bolt was MIA when I bought it. That being said I -could- get a ‘blank’ bolt body, and stamp it correctly, as I do have the right style and size metal stamps. Not sure if I should or not…

Either way, what a day.
What a few weeks even. Mentally I feel a bit better in that I’ve been avoiding the news as I’ve been too busy with this project. So much so that I also have another one I’m doing in the very near future.

That’s doing a Hydrodip on one of my Turkish made weapons… I’ve got and have had for a loooong while a Tisas 1911A1 I got off Palmetto State when they were like $299.99. I mean for three bills? A 1911A1 clone?

Lots of people have said they’re shit… Turkish weapons in general, but I’ve been running Turk-Guns for a LONG while and have NEVER had a bad experience. In fact I’m highly impressed with the quality and resiliency… My M-9 clone (made by Girsan) is a peach… and my Black Aces Tactical is a reinforced and rebuilt by BAT 12 Gauge Semiautomatic “People Slayer”… especially after I had gotten done modding THAT puppy up…

I mean I already tuned the 1911A1… Extended slide release as well as safety, Mag-Pul grips, custom comp trigger and hammer… and an oversized mag release button b/c I purely hate the itty-bitty standard button. It’s a bit of a mutant weapon, and it was cheap-cheap, so I’m playing with my mods on it.

I figured why not try doing a Hydrodip Job?

So watch for that later.
Other than that, how do you think the Enfield turned out? Do another and do a raffle for it? What say you?
More Later
Big Country