Owning a Small Piece of History

Given the furor over the assault weapon band I decided that it was time to take the plunge and buy one.  In keeping with my Scottish roots I bought a cheap firearm.  In keeping with my English roots I bought a British assault weapon.  My German, Indian and Irish roots are getting left out in the cold with this purchase. Given the Lego nature of assault weapons mine has been heavily modified with a shortened barrel, an improved forestock, hooded foresight, ghost ring rear sight, as well as a peep site that is good out to 1300 yards.  Alas, alack the rifle is compliant with Canadian and New York firearms regulations and only holds 10 rounds in a box magazine.

Yeah, I bought a sporterized Lee-Enfield Mark 4 No.1 built in 1942.  The rifle is older than my father.  Mind you the rifle is in great shape although it was very dirty.  Once I got the bore cleaned up it was nice and shiny with no pitting present.  The beechwood stock although uninspiring is in great shape, the bluing is 95% with a couple of scratches on the barrel and a small bit of rust on the action.   Whoever sporterized the rifle looks to have rebarreled the rifle. I suspect the sporterizing was a factory job since the barrel is marked with it's actual length and has the British proof marks.  I'm contemplating getting a company in Ottawa to apply CeraKote to the barrel and action mostly to see how good a job they can do before I commit a more expensive rifle or handgun to the process.

At seventy-five bucks it was a pretty good price.  I could sell the magazine for anywhere from forty-five to seventy-five dollars afterall.

As you can see the upper part of the fore-stock has been removed as has the original front sight and the lower fore-stock has been substantially reduced.

The stripper clip bridge and the original rear sights are still present.  The original battle sight has a v-groove in the bottom which I suspect is an attempt to lower the shot groups.

I must admit to a predilection for brass furniture on a firearm.  Nothing dresses up a musket or old military arm like a bit of brass.

Given the date of manufacture (1942) I suspect that my Lee-Enfield went through what was called a Factory Throrough Repair (FTR) since most of the wartime production had a ZAMAK (zinc alloy) butt-plate rather than a brass butt-plate.  Many Mark I rifles were upgraded to the No.4 Mark II standard post-war, but this rifle doesn't have any of the markings that indicate such an upgrade.  I've ordered a brass oiler for the cleaning kit and I think I'll pick up an extra bore-snake