Picked up a new friend today....

[Chewie095]

1917 Lee Enfield SMLE No1 Mk 3
This is my second Enfield and the oldest of my milsurp collection.

Out the door for 109.00, no rust, metal still looks solid, though the bands around the barrel are in need of painting. The stock is not cracked at all but is greasy with cosmoline and in need of a refinish. I will begin that this weekend.

I should still be ok with modern ammo, correct? The bore is shiny and I can see no signs of stress to the chamber, bolt, or mag assembly.

Was this a good deal?

 

[alemonkey]

That is a smoking good deal. How does the bore look? You might want to check the headspace, but other than that I bet you're fine.

But it doesn't exist without pics.

 

[Chewie095]

Hehe. I will post pics this afternoon, before I remove the stock to clean the cosmoline up.

Any tips on checking head space on an Enfield?

*EDIT* Oh, and I will try to get a pic of the bore as well, but it looks amazing. Shiny with deep grooves.

 

[Chewie095]

Finally, pics are up.

 

[AmishFury]

$109 for a No.1 MkIII* is an amazing deal

and your barrel bands do not need "repainting" they were not painted in the first place and the finish on the stock looks fine to me... a rifle from 1917 has every right to show it's age

all you really need to do to it is clean the cosmoline off of it...

 

[Chewie095]

I will have to search on the best methods to clean cosmoline off the wood.

My last Enfield (1940 Mk4) had a mis matched stock that drove me nuts, so I had to refinish it to match. Perhaps after a good shine job the stock will come out nice.


If the bands were not painted, were they parkerized as well? Please forgive my ignorance. I am not looking to bubba this girl out, she will remain stock, I just want to clean her up.

 

[AmishFury]

they would have been blued in 1917

as for cleaning cosmoline from wood... wrap the stock in newspaper and sit on the dashboard of a car on a hot day... a slower method involves a hair dryer and paper towels...

either way you will still need to take some rags or paper towels to wipe the stock as you shoot the rifle if the cosmoline soaked deep enough into the wood (i've got a couple of mosins that still sweat cosmoline when i shoot them)

here's a photo of a 1918 SSA No.1 MkIII* with it's original military finish (and if you look carefully you can see i missed a bit of cosmoline on this one too)

 

[lionking]

nice!Be sure to join the milsurp contest stickied at the top!

 

[Hoppy590]

amazing deal

 

[DougW]

Great deal! Nice rifle!

 

[Chewie095]

Thanks for the tips Amish! Thanks for the pic as well, now I know mine has more character than flaws. That is much more important to me than shiny. Thanks to everyone else for the nice remarks!