Enfield 1917 SMLE

[Hauptmann]

One of my birthday presents... and my first and only Enfield save the two band one from the American Civil War. Sadly this one has been sporterized but I plan to restore it back to it's original WW1 appearance as I can afford to.

I'm totally new to this area of Milsurp firearms so any and all comments and/or help would be deeply appreciated.

I'll add more pics after I give it a good cleaning and can get out my scanner to capture some of the markings.

[Hauptmann]

From what I can tell both the receiver and barrel are matching numbers. I think I'll need the complete rear site, rear site protector, nose cap, barrel band as well as the bottom and top forestock pieces. If anyone familiar with these can think of anything else I'll need, as well as any of the screws, etc., I'd need for same please let me know. There's tons of info out there but again I'm a newbie to these and have been looking at and reading so much that it's all starting to get muddled up in my head.

One of the few pieces my father left behind when he took the bulk of his collection up north (was all stolen from the estate) was his bayonets one of which is the match to this rifle... mine being marked Australia on the grip. Will post pics of that as well soon as I can.

It's an SSA Scheme Enfield (Standard Small Arms) which I understand are a good bit rarer and more in demand than standard SMLE's of the time. This is also the * version which means simplified for faster/cheaper war production, ie: getting rid of such things as the magazine cutoff and the volley sites as well as the brass disc on the butstock.

I'm trying to learn all I can about these and hope I'm able to do justice to this old girl and bring her back to her glory days.

Will post more pics as soon as I can.

Dan

Edited August 21, 2014 by Hauptmann

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Dan,

Hi Dan nice B'day gift. Fortunately due to the number of these "out there" you should be able to find all of the parts you'll need.

The Australian bayonets seem to have flooded the market up here in Canada and at the moment out-number the British made bayonets. Still they command a price tag of $125.00. I'm looking for a 1918 dated British bayonet for my WWI Enfield at the moment; problem is that the couple I have found at shows are all in excelllent condition. It's a problem because the rife has been there and seen that, or rather done that, so the bayonet needs to be in less than perfect condition.

Do be sure to post your progress as you restore this historic weapon.

Regards

Brian

[Mervyn Mitton]

Dan - nice to see you posting. What has been happening in your life ?

I carried one of these when I was doing National Service and my cadet training in Australia.

I can tell you only ONE thing - they weigh 9 pounds 4 ozs. - which is very heavy in the Aust. sun.........

how strange that the weight is indelibly with me - some 58 years later.

[Brian Wolfe]

That would be exactly the same weight as the rifle would be when carried in the Canadian winter's cold weather.

Regards

Brian

[Hauptmann]

Any idea what the strip or plate behind the front sites/nose cap is called? I just got a stock with all hardware except that and the barrel band/swivvel which I'm working on now. But in the pics the guy shows the stock parts put together and there's a gab where that plate or whatever it's called seems to go. There are the matching two holes for the pins that hold it on. I've circled the area in this pic:

This is my stock set (sellers photo) where I've circled the same area. You can see it needs that plate... but I've no idea what it's actually called re: being able to find one for sale.

Any help deeply appreciated!

Gotta run... off to the gulag again for another 10.5 hours.

Dan

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Dan,

Get off eBay now and surf the net for gun parts dealers, there are a ton of them in the USA. I have been trying to find out what the little piece is called since I read your post but the memory and my reference books are no help.

One of these parts dealers will be able to help you out.

Regards

Brian

[mickey]

hi dan the part is called hand guard cap front 5 to 10 dollars most enfield parts guys will have it

[Brian Wolfe]

Hi Mickey,

Thank you for the information. For the life of me I could not recall the name or even if I ever knew what it was called. I suppose I should expect this with old age upon me.

Regards

Brian

[Hauptmann]

Many thanks everyone for the help so far. I have gotten a few things in... stock set should be in later today. I just finished up putting on the rear sight assembly save for the pin which I've got coming in along with a slightly longer buttstock, as well as the hand guard front cap and two screws for same. It looks SO much better with the rear sight back on it. Can't wait to put on the stock and see how she looks as well as when the rest of the parts arrive.

Once she's done I'll take and post more pics of her all dressed up in her finest. Will still have to get a sling for her but probably can't do that for a couple weeks or so.

Will keep ya'll posted.

God bless,

Dan

[Hauptmann]

Hi all. Sorry it's taken me this long to get back to this and post pics but once again work at the "gulag" has kept me from living my life or doing anything enjoyable for quite a while.

Other than getting the stock pieces to match a bit better color wise she's pretty much done. Well that and getting hold of the proper shoulder strap and proper WW1 period oiler. Anyhow, hope you like her as much as I do.

God bless,

Dan

Edited September 25, 2014 by Hauptmann

[Brian Wolfe]

Hello Dan,

Well done, you've brought an iconic weapon back to the condition in which she was meant to be.

Regards

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

I've moved this post from the Firearms Section to this section as it is one of the best retoration projects I've seen in a long, long time.

Thanks Dan for posting your work.

A beautiful restoration.

Regards

Brian

[Spasm]

Agreed, very well done Dan.

And nice to see you back.

[Hauptmann]

Hi all. First off, many thanks for your wonderful comments. I deeply appreciate it. My apologies Brian for not getting back to you on your PM's. I'm honored that you decided to place my work here. Although I'm very proud of it I didn't really think it was anything super special as I know many others have restored these over time.

My friend Tyrell helped me with it... both of us being comparative strangers to the Enfield series although I'd read about them, seem many photos and actually knew a good bit more about them than he did. But he has a great knowledge of milsurp rifles in general and so between us we managed to sort things out and get her all dressed up in her WW1 duds. She's also a great pleasure to shoot, especially now that we've added a bit of weight with the full stock set as well as the longer buttstock. I've kept the original wood... basically the buttstock and the bottom forestock which as you've seen in the photos was cut down right at the barrel band. But I strongly believe everything should be kept together. If more bubba's had done that when they sporterized these they'd have been extremely simple to put back into their original condition with few exceptions. Sadly most such parts were probably given away, or popped into spares boxes and lost or thrown out over time. A real shame.

I feel I know enough now that if another similar example of one of these... any model, were to come my way for a good price I'd not hesitate to pick it up if I could afford to and put it back to it's original military condition.

Thanks again to everyone and please, if anyone is working on one of these and has questions, please feel free to pm me and I'll do what I can to help or point you to where you can get some excellent advice.

God bless,

Dan

[peter monahan]

Oilers are pretty common. I picked one up for $20.00 Cdn a while back, so you should do better than that down there. Also got an un-issued for stock for my 1912 SMLE, which made the rest of the woodwork look pretty shabby. And, because of Asian Long Horn Beetle or some such, getting a 102 year old piece of wood into Canada was only slightly easier than importing AK47s or a pound of cocaine!