No. 4 Mark 1 bad photos

Gene L

But a fine rifle. 

A few years back, I bought the above "sporterized" rifle off the web, can't remember from whom.  Anyway, an interesting story.  I paid for it on my card and gave them the shipping address of my FFL holder.  A few days later on a Sunday as I remember, a Fed Ex truck arrived at my door and delivered my rifle.  Apparently, they took the address off my credit card.

Anyway, it wasn't just a cut down No. 4.  I have no way of knowing, but I believe it was a project rifle from a gunsmith school.  The stock was replaced with a nice, plain walnut, sporter length, and finished well.  All the military markings had been buffed off and professionally deep blued and a commercial front sight put on it.  A five-round  mag replaced the original, also blued.  The rear sight was the early 4 Mk 1 sight, machined rather than stamped like the later ones.  Also, the side of the receiver had been milled down for a scope mount, which was included.  Very professionally done, everything.  Bore is brilliant.  Last night I cleaned the bore and examined the patch, and found that the barrel had 5 or 6 grooves, as the later ones had 2, a time/cost saving move. I found thi out after watching a video on the No 4.

The point is, whoever sold the rifle to me obviously was inexperienced, shipping the rifle to me.  Also, the rifle was under priced, which attracted me.  I believe I paid $250 for it.

This is the second gun I've bought that I think were project guns.  The other was a 16 ga double gun, Savage or Stevens or Sears. (all the same gun.)  Everything I said about the Enfield applies to the double, except the smith had fit a Neidner steel buttplate.  It was cheap, too, as the seller saw it as a cheap Stevens.

So sometimes, it pays to take a chance on a gun sight unseen. Just got to look at the photos of the ad. 

earlyagain

There's a guy on youtube. I think he calls himself a bloke at the range. He's got some real interesting stuff on the SMLE's. Apparently many were beautifully modified to target competition in 60's and 70's..

I like the mag motification on yours.

GunNut

Nice job on that one!  I love old sporterized military guns.  They actually represent a period of time in the USA gun history where such well crafted rifles were available in abundance and CHEAP!  I think now we are starting to get an appreciation as to how good these guns were/are and I see pricing going up accordingly.

Zee

The did a good job of sporterizing first it. 

Gene L

Yeah, great job.  The student(?) gunsmith probably bought it back when you could get Enfields for $25.  An original unaltered one in good condition would be worth a LOT right now for collectors.  Whether by luck or by design, he chose an excellent No 4.  Most likely a pre-war rifle, everything machined, multiple grooved rifling, perfect bore without much use showing.

In England, Canada, and Australia, they still compete with No 4s and SMLEs, and do pretty well with them in service matches out to long ranges.  Been watching videos of them, probably including the Bloke you mentioned above.  I've got one charger (clip) and found you have to load rounds in it in a certain way to prevent rim lock with the rimmed .303.  First time I tried loading with the charger w/out staggering the rounds, got a failure to feed, had to look up the proper method.


Australia never adopted the No 4, kept the SMLE with a heavier barrel and some other changes, I guess. My brother had an excellent No 4 made in the USA by Savage. I guess his son has it now.