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Military Firearm Restoration Corner

Lee Enfield#7, Longbranch


Gothmog

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Gothmog,what's the sling swivel in front of the maazine for? I don't think I've seen one like that before.That's a dern good shape and looking 303! Jerry

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Gothmog --

 

That is one seriously beautiful Enfield! I am envious, I want a Longbranch too. My only Enfield, aside from the converted/sporterized .410 is my No. 4, Mk I...of the Indian variety. It was one nasty piece when I got it a few years back, since then, I have done all the restorative things I could think of, and have a fairly lovely gun now...but then again, what I did would definitely NOT endear me to purists. I'll see if I can find a picture of it both before and after....

 

Your rifle is incredible though! The stock is just gorgeous!

 

OK...here's a sample of mine....

 

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And this one I like even though it doesn't reveal much, because outside in the sun, the warmth of the wood is evident....

 

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You done a beautiful job there Emul8. Funny how,thanks to y'll,we have this new hang out,and now I want a Enfield and Jap 38.I think it would be the berries to have a 303 restored like yours and Goths,and then have a fully sportered one hanging under it on a gun rack.I have 2 perfect Swede 96's,one a Husqvarna 38 and the other a Gustof,and also have 2 '96 sporters,and folks can't believe they're the same guns. Jerry

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Gothmog --

 

Somewhere else here on this very site I detailed my own personal method for cleaning and refurbishing stocks that are fairly bad...like this Enfield's was. Interestingly enough, I didn't even mention that I used the same method on this Enfield, and it was one of the very worst stocks that I ever had to clean, the Cosmoline saturation was very heavy. I didn't work to raise the dents or anything, there weren't a lot of dents or gouges anyway, and there was a number painted on one side of the buttstock that I chose to preserve, so I didn't have to do a lot of sanding either...I just cleaned the poo out of it and used a clean bone to burnish the stock, then filled the grain with very thin applications of tung oil cut with mineral spirits...in the case of this rifle, I think I applied 6 coats or so. After that, I waxed it, and this is what I ended up with! I am happy.

 

I once joked that when I opened the box containing this Enfield I thought I was looking at a rifle hospice! The original finish was black paint, and it was so badly applied that there were even fingerprints in the paint on the magazine! It was really bad and I thought I was in totally over my head (which wasn't hard as I had zero experience with many firearms at that point). I just did the restoration very slowly and methodically and figured that if I made a mistake it would be a learning experience and if I couldn't recover the rifle from my mistakes, I would make it a sporter! You know, "necessity is the mother of invention". But I'm glad that it came out the way that it did, and that I didn't make a lot of mistakes, the blue is cold blue, and I did a few 'trial and error' approaches to that to get a finish that I could live with, and thus far, it's been more durable than I expected.

 

Horsefly --

 

Enfields are excellent guns, the action is very smooth, fluid-like even. It's my understanding that of most Enfields, the Longbranch version is one of the most desirable, but I didn't care when I got my first Enfield...I just had to have one! I have heard that the .303 cartridge was developed as an anti-aircraft round, so it's powerful, but in anything but a No. 5 Jungle carbine, the recoil is manageable...I think. These guns can be kind of heavy, particularly the No. 1, Mk IIIs due to the full-length stocks, but the No. 4, Mk I is almost the same. My .410 bore shotgun is a sporterized No. 1 Mk III, and it's pretty light after all the excess hardware and wood was removed, so as a sporter project, you could produce good results with an Enfield I imagine. Historically speaking, there have been some complaints over the ergonomics of the Enfield buttstock, some soldiers didn't like them...personally, I do, but it's all a matter of taste and what you can live with.

 

Oh, and they are very, very accurate too! My No. 4 Mk I has the flip sight, which is sort of porthole-ish, and I would like to change it to the micrometer sight at some point, but even so, after I fire a few flyers I can generally get down to some decent shooting pretty quickly, and if I can do it with my marginal markswomanship, anyone can!!

 

Get at least one if you can...you won't be sorry!

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Gothmog,what's the sling swivel in front of the maazine for? I don't think I've seen one like that before.That's a dern good shape and looking 303! Jerry

Well I ran across a post on CGN that suggests that the mag swivel is for an elbow strap intended for use in competitive shooting ... there is apparently a blurb in Skennerton's book on it.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi All,

 

The sling loop in fornt of the mag is also found on the No4T sniper rifles, where it was used with the US patt 1907 sling or so I believe. The No4T was certainly isued with the US leather sling and certainly had the sling loop as pictured. Later these were used with a target sling in competition but not I would assume on a training rifle.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest ian robertson

The swivel in front of the mag is for a two point sling for target shooting. In the hands of one who knows what to do they are virtually as useful as a modern one point sling as per Palma shooting. I have one of each, a sling and a #7. They are capable of accuracy that you would expect from Anschutz.

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