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Battle damage

T

Telperion

Well-known member
Yeah I Know it's not a Mauser ...but a battle damage. An SMLE Mk I, unchanged since WW I, discovered last year in a little gun shop just a mile away from my home.

I got the right undamaged nosecap, but after trying to fit it onto the rifle, I know now what "handfitting" really means ....

T
 

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Very cool. Honestly I think I"d leave the existing nose cap as is. Not only because it keeps the gun original, but also because a SMLE nose cap shouldn't require that much hand fitting. Maybe some, but not a ton. It's likely that the rest of the gun was damaged in the hit as well and everything is even more mated to its neighbor than normal.
 
Won't touch it of course! The bore is like a mirror, so when we go to the range, I will have to apply something more solid. A Mk III nosecap will do for sure.

No no, I like it how it is.
 
If you want a shooter I'd get another. A gun that's been rocked like that likely has other damage you're not seeing. I'd also be wary of removing the damaged part unless it's clearly loose, as you can have stuff essentially staked in place by the hit that will never go together right again once you pull it apart.
 
Don't see many No1 ***'s even over in the UK , and that's a good one with a story to tell.
 
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7up said:
Don't see many No1 ***'s even over in the UK , and that's a good one with a story to tell.
Click to expand...

I thought this was some auto-censor thing and spent a solid thirty seconds trying to figure out what bad word could have come after a No1, either a real term filtered by over-zealous software or a juvenile gun board joke. Especially with three letters.

Then I engaged my brain and remembered how the Brits like to used asterisks lol
 
Before the guys at the gunshop sold it to me, they sent some bullets down the range to make sure that there are no safety issues with the old blighter. WITH the damaged nosecap! This is something I would never do.
The problem with it is that that the forward lip of the HG is quite high so that another nosecap can't slip over it. I found an already damaged No 1 nosecap (bayo fixing base at the bottom milled off) which I could alter accordingly so that I could use it for range days. But first I will try all my spare Mk III nosecaps. It will only be for a handful of rounds every 3 or 4 years or so.
My Enfield shooter will be a No4 Mk2, preferable a POF one so that I can complete my Enfield collection.
Thanks for all your kind remarks!

T
 
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These old rifles are ours for the time we have, and hopefully we send them on to another caretaker when it's our time to pass them on.. these are historic artifacts, ours to treasure for a time... neither we nor they are becoming any younger. 😎 Meanwhile, enjoy them!
 
i have a pair of Gew 88 battle damaged , i had like 200 of these at one point and they were in the lot , the pics were taken before i cleaned them up to stop the rust , the one the bullet blew the bolt up , part of the bolt head is still in it and the extrator was still in it , i wiggled it out , they are hard to come by and i needed it , the bullet entere the jacket and traveled down the barrel to the receiver is what im guessing , the other was a side shot , it pierced the barrel as you can see light when siting the bore

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