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:
https://twitter.com/BigCountryExpat/status/1890857384181907785
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!
More lter
Big Country
The brass tack in the stock is not British issue of any kind, it’s probably an African good luck charm. 🙂
On the wood, I would have taken it down with 80-120 grit to get rid of that severe wood rash. You need 80 grit to cut thru the grease in the top layer, 220 won’t do any good. I could have all the wood looking near new in an afternoon, I’ve been a custom stockmaker for 45+ yrs. But you obviously want the aged African look?
I guess I got lucky in yrs past, we rarely saw Enfields in this bad condition, they’re now importing the last of the 3rd world surplus guns and it’s not pretty. I did have an Indian SMLE converted to .22, it was hammered fairly bad, took a bit of work to get it cleaned up.
I would also have prepped the metal with abrasive strips to get nicks and scratches out before painting, especially the exposed metal that got hammered in the last 80 yrs.
Either way, good luck with the project.
Did Willie Nelson fix the hole in his guitar? Hell no!
So Infantry is outmoded… again? Yes, drones have changed deployment tactics, so what? The push of the pike was superseded by riflery. We get that. But drones don’t hold ground. Not do they kick in doors and grab high value prisoners. I suspect that drones and their operators will augment, if not replace the squad mortarman. Definitely at the company level and above we shall see drone formations. But nothing will replace dirty, nasty, farting grunts that occupy and kill up close and personally. Just like snipers, the role of drone operator will become part of the Infantry world, for better or worse. And better train a lot of them, as they will most definitely NOT make it to POW camps.
Eh, drones are being used to target and kill individual infantrymen in the Ukraine. And they’re only getting cheaper and more numerous.
Total replacement of the infantry? Probably not.
Radical shift in how they are employed, as to be unrecognizable to what we know today? Very likely.
Bill’s podcast on it was good, and Matt’s write-up was as well.
Word. As an infantry-trained grunt (MOS11B20) during out great second-place effort in SE Asia (not deployed overseas) I learned very quickly about movement, infra-red detection, and other techniques to employ to keep me from assuming room temperature. The Afghanis would thwart our electronics by simply removing their heat signatures, hiding in shallow holes under blankets.
For every countermeasure there is another counter-countermeasure. And for those REMFs who are tracking the incoming drones, they will be telling the secret-squirrel operators where the drone commanders are and how to set up their lairs for destruction. Drones are indeed a frightening game changer to the average snuffy. But they are not invincible. Bleib ubrig.
Not saying anyone is right or wrong, but before we declare infantry to be hopelessly obsolete, consider the example of the enemy in Vietnam’s I Corps and II Corps say 1966-68. They were killing our men in places like Con Tien and the A Shau Valley at an alarming and consistent rate. Since our Army and Marines were superbly trained and enjoyed a firepower overmatch most of the time, they could afford to absorb some bad days in the field and make the enemy pay a heavy price to stay in the war. The divisional LRRPS in country as well as the MACVSOG recon teams inserted into Laos were almost always compromised and eventually extracted under heavy pressure. This was a down in the mud dogfight under terrible conditions that could only be fought and eventually won by the infantry of one side or the other.
I ask the drone dominance advocates this; Do you believe that the outcome of that fight would be any different if you could fight the 1968 PAVN all over again with a modern army and every single technological evolution available today to a modern nation state? I suspect not, but that’s just my opinion. I could argue the same with many other places and times and I suspect the answer would be the same. I’m 100% certain that all the drones and tech in the world would not have gotten the Japanese out of their caves and bunkers at Tarawa or Iwo Jima either.
Let us look at it another way, both sides have drones in Ukraine, yet the front has barely moved 30 miles from Donetsk in the last 2 years. Those 30 miles cost both sides dearly, but was the ground taken by drones or did men have to go in and stand on that ground and own it, drones or no drones, before the lines on the map moved? I do not disagree with Bracken , Shift, or BCE about the pressing need to be on top of these technologies, I’m just not ready to declare the infantyman a thing of the past just yet.
It would not be a shocker if the ground forces already have something very similar…
https://www.droneshield.com/c-uas-products/dronegun-tactical
A useless weapon against the fiber optic drones the Russians are fielding.
It’s almost like legit mobile EMP generators are going to be needed.
They aren’t really that difficult to build…you just have to shield your own electronic devices unless the beam is very directional.
Infantry obsolete? Nah.
Infantry tactics obsolete? Yes.
We need real outside-the-box thinkers in military leadership roles. The Cold War/GWOT thinkers need to adapt or get out of the way, all they are going to do is get good troops killed.
And that is different from any other military leaders save the OKW?
Between drones, AI, satellites and data centers, flipping The Big Switch and total-EMP is looking like the traditional ground-pounder’s only way to keep traditions at the moment.
Be a shame if everybody loses power, but eggs and omelettes you know?
I learned that mil surplus Garand stocks had been oiled…and oiled…and oiled…and the way to remove that excess oil is by gently heating the stripped stock over…my gas grill. GENTLY. It was amazing how much old filthy oil and grime came out. After half a dozen repetitions, the color of the wood had lightened, I applied a coat of new oil.
Do not overheat the wood. If it is too hot to touch, it is too hot.
Came to say the same thing. Direct Texas sun in July or August was my go to, but that’s a long time off. If you have an oven that will go as low as 150-175, that’s perfect. It weeps the cosmoline out of the pores of the wood, and hopefully carries some grit with it. Wrap it in paper towels. (Not on a gas grill unless you want a bonfire.)
Lemon Pledge contains dimethicone, a form of silicone. Never, ever use any silicone product on wood stocks or furniture . It prevents penetration and bonding. https://www.whatsinsidescjohnson.com/ca/en/brands/pledge/pledge-lemon-fresh
Bob Flexner taught that in a course I took based on his book: “Understanding Wood Finishing”
RE the stock: When I was milsurping, I’d put the really thickly coated ones on the dash in full sun. It would cook out the crud. A pig pad would catch the drips. I used the 200 degree stove option a few times, but that makes birthday cakes taste weird. The old Turk rifles IIRC had 50% tallow, 50% cosmo coatings. You really wanted to clean all that out as recoil would rub that crap into your face and epic zits of doom were the result.
This is just a point but I had to design some automotive dash parts and wanted to know max temp that a vehicle interior could get to. That temp was 176 degrees F. Granted this was in Houston on a summer day. Did the same test in Chicago in the summer and reached 162 degrees. I think Florida in summer is going to get to the Houston temp. Also acetone will leach out the oil but local flammability might be an issue.
Spin
I keep meaning to share Matt’s post but what I keep coming back to is this: how much does it cost to train a single soldier as a basic infantryman versus the cost of a single drone that can take out multiple grunts in one explosion? The differential has got to be enormous. There are certainly some things that you will still need infantry for but you couldn’t get me to sign up as a spear carrier for any amount of money if it means waiting around for a drone to blow me up. That has to be almost as bad as sitting in a trench waiting for the whistle to go “over the top” in WW I.
Agree pledge contains silicone; avoid it.
And cook out the excess oil in a hot car. Works a charm and doesn’t stink up your house and oven- which will piss off Gretchen.
Can a drone capture and hold territory?
This Brit doesn’t look to be in good as condition as the other and that sucks about the Frankenmauser not shooting.
I wish I had kept my Kimber/Mauser Frankenstein but the tower guard was offering ca$h American right now.
Can you link that MOLLE case apparatus you got there?
Dear BCE:
This is a slightly political comment. I was on the left coast visiting Pretty Daughter last week and did not bring laptop. This morning I discovered that Elon of Doge, First of His Name, Slayer of Waste and Corruption, Royal Knight of the Slash, is going to open the vault at Fort Knox and see what’s inside. This is the political part: I think that he should take Geraldo with him. I have a feeling that he is going to find the same results that Geraldo did with Capones vault.
Spin
P.S. The US banks have been bringing gold deposits back to the US from London. Makes one think.
Mylar balloons and monofilament fishing line as the next “Barrage balloon”. Chinese lanterns (the hot air things I find all over fields) to screw with thermal. Solar yard light with the led replaced with infrared. There’s lots of video of “dead” mannequins that were juicy targets to suck up incoming drones. (Possibly why so many soldiers were “freezing” with the detection of a drone earlier?) We ain’t seen nothing yet.
My suggestion is to use denatured alcohol and a mild scotchbrite pad to soften any finish bonded on the cellulose at an atomic level, and decouple it from the wood so you don’t get fiber tear-out when you do sand.
The museum-level furniture conservators do this at the start of a restoration.
It’s a phenomenal cleaner. Works on cosmoline residue a treat.