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Ways to Restore a Sporterized SMLE No1 Mk3
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- Опубліковано 17 кві 2021
- The No1 Mk3 Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) was the standard service rifle for British and common wealth military forces. It was mainly used in WW1 and WW2, but continued service with many countries for decades to follow. Sometimes you may find a cheap sporter rifle on a store shelf or online so we decided to create a video to give you some ideas for restoring a sporterized Lee Enfield. These are amazing rifles and have a lot of history. Good luck if you are seriously thinking of bringing one of these back to its original form 😁👍🏼
⚒️ Where to look for parts:
Apex Gun Parts
Liberty Tree Collectors
Numrich
Buy Milsurp
Sarco Inc (we don't recommend their reproduction forestocks)
Ebay
Gun Broker
🔫 Donor Rifles:
Royal Tiger Imports
J&G Sales
Update: I have heard you can find the drill rifles on some other websites and on gun broker
🪵 New Wood Furniture
Prestigious Wood Stocks
*We are not certified gunsmiths and recommend you consult a certified gunsmith before taking apart or repairing firearms.
🪖 Check us out on Instagram and Facebook for more Epic content!
@Battlefield_Curator
We do not attempt to sell you anything in this video. We are not financial advisors nor do we give legal financial advice, please talk to your CPA. Gun enthusiasts should read the owners manual and consult a firearms expert to fully understand the weapon. These historical relics and products commonly available in stores all across the United States. Our videos are for entertainment purposes.
Currently restoring a SMLE barreled action I picked up at a flea market. I will pick up a trainer rifle to use as parts. Thanks for the vids buddy! Always appreciated
enjoy your project! I've done 3 SMLE restorations so far. I bought some Drill Rifles from JG sales and I got one left... sporter SMLEs don't seem to be as abundant as before. I will be on the lookout though
I bought a “sporterized “ Remington 1903a3 years ago and restored it. I bought a new stock and new metals (the stock took a bunch of sanding to get everything to fit). I glad I did it and it looks awesome but won’t do it again!
lol I too put a new stock on a 1903A3... yea a lot of sanding but it came out nice! It wasn't a sporter but it had a cracked stock. I may try and fix the original stock now that I have some experience with stock work
Did the doner option for my ishapore 2a enfield I got from sarco. Enjoyed it :) headspace is clean and good with awesome bore. I did have a spare complete bolt that works well with it no issue.
I recommend option C foe those wondering.
Sporterized = Bubba’d
lol yep
Just started a project de-sporterizing a No4 mk1 with Prestigious stocks. Lots of little metal parts to get.
Yes, I also have a sporterized No4 Mk1 that needs parts. contemplating a donor rifle though.
Bless you for fixing that Hillbilly Hack Job .
Thanks
DP. Stands for DO NOT SHOOT under any circumstances. They are made from scrap, worn out parts and will fail and kill you. They must never be fired, regardless of what any "expert" gunsmith tells you.
Of course, but we are just using the parts from a DP rifle to replace parts for a sporter or broken rifle.
Just restored one the other day. Looks great and did it for a decent price too.
Awesome, what was your procedure?
@@BattlefieldCurator Found an intact metal SMLE for dirt cheap and found a decent stock set with all the metal on ebay for a good price. Popped the bad wood off and put the good on.
@@chris.3711 great job using those resources!
@@BattlefieldCurator Been doing it for a few years now and saved a fair share of sporters. I love it!
@@chris.3711 Awesome, thanks for saving history! There's not too many people willing to take on such projects
Thanks.
DP means something else to me…. Good video
😂
I picked up a Bubba’d Ishapor MKIII. I also picked up 2 J&G drill rifles for parts.
Once I collect all the choice parts from both donors. I’d like to get one of the drill rifles made into a cutaway, is there a gunsmith anyone would recommend for the job?
Could be a DIY projects. Some of those drill rifle stocks are not the greatest either. I have two drill stocks that are in need of repair
Currently waiting for a very tired old Lithgow to land at my dealer. It's in pretty rough shape, but Bubba was lazy, and just hacked off the forestock, ditched the handguards, and called it good. Probably won't be much use to you blokes in the states, but for anyone else down under, there's a place in Brisbane that does extremely high quality reproduction stocks, in a variety of timbers to suit various periods of manufacture at Lithgow. They also carry a bunch of small parts, like screws, springs, swivels and buttplates.
Nice! There’s a place in Canada that does pretty decent repro stocks
Seems like more and more people making them these days, which is great. With CNC machining equipment becoming more prevalent, it's a lot more financially viable than having a bloke making them by hand.
4:57 obviously build a time machine and go back in time. 🙃
Lol
im not experienced with restoring enfields BUT i wanted to try my hand at some consequence free gunsmithing. i bought one of the spanish mauser 7mm barreled action 5 packs from old wester scrounger. after ffl transfer fees came out to about 15$ per. three had fantastic bores, two not so much. wanting to try my hand at it, ive began building two matching rifles, one for me one for my sister, ordered EVERY missing parts and stocks for about 220$ per. so far thats 235 for a complete gun that i can guilt free reblue, color case harden certain bits, and refinish the stock. not a bad deal ide say for the experience and im confident we will end up with 2 shooters to hang on to
Thats great to hear! I enjoy working on projects from time to time but I came across a few sporter enfields so I decided to try my hand at those. I even visited an Enfield specialist (Brian Dick LTD) who has his shop about an hour from us. He gave me a lot of knowledge about Lee Enfields!
just checked out OWS... they got a lot of cool stuff for projects!
*Charger guide.
Is it possible to put an smle stock on a no4 mk1 “long branch” barrel and action. Just a wierd thought i had
I’m pretty sure you can’t. The no4 barrel was thicker and no1 stocks were thinner and not as re-enforced as no4 stocks
I would like to get parts, a barrled action and a repro stock and have the parts re finshed then put it all together. I;d love a rifle like that.
I’ve seen some at gun shows
I just a week ago finally found a stock for my SMLE, every metal part included, i thought it was gonna be a nightmare to touch up but it’s not, at least the bottom part is , the top is a different color, cracked, and brittle,
It’s gonna need some work
I’ve seen some of Mark Novac’s content on UA-cam, he really knows the tips and tricks to help restore old weaponry
@@BattlefieldCurator Turns out the hardest part was just trying to get the finish to stay on, but it’s all together now and I’m very happy with it
@@RUSTYCHEVYTRUCK ah ok awesome! Glad it worked out for you! I still need to find time to keep working on a SMLE stock I’ve got
So my SMLE No1 MkIII* has buckhorn sights. Does that mean it's no longer possible to restore it?
Haha it has been sporterized. Take it to your local gunsmith or two so they can give you that determination.
Could the stock on the Denix replica be used for a real SMLE MK3?
I wouldn’t try it… that wood and how it was made for the replica wasn’t tested to withstand .303 British and the dimensions will probably be off
@@BattlefieldCurator Gotcha. I'll go with a drill rifle. Didn't expect a response so thanks for responding!
Would you consider using channel proceeds to restore a no.1 mk3* if I were to show you the most gruesome hatched job ever cobbled together? 😆 🤣 😆
Ohhh man! 😂 feel free to send some pics to our Facebook page or Instagram page
Are the DP bolts usable? Thank you
It depends… you’d want to check headspace and look for any deformities. I talked to a legendary SMLE gunsmith, see this video for details from that visit ua-cam.com/video/AhUwpDMICBA/v-deo.html
I'm getting started on restoring a BSA 1918 SMLE no1 mk3* I found on GunBroker....a combination of option A and B (new wood and scrounging up the metal parts I need on the internet). Hopefully I'm not in over my head. What the hell is the brass cross pin for located on the stock in front of the trigger? I don't want to bugger up a pricey piece of wood if it isn't necessary to put it in.
the brass "pin" in the stock that is visible right above the trigger is actually a screw used to strengthen the stock. it was screwed in then ground off at each end. You may have to do more research on that screw.
I wouldn't use any metal or pressure bearing parts stamped "DP" They were stamped "DP" because they were thought to possibly be substandard and/or dangerous.
From what I gather, that is mostly a myth. I even asked the expert at BDL LTD out of Edgfield SC and we used some of those DP bolt parts for replacing parts to get an Enfield back into orginal config.
@@BattlefieldCurator I have mentioned ‘Britain’ here but while I can’t include Canada, I can certainly include New Zealand and Australia with a degree of certainty plus India, whose Army liaison Officer at work ran his eyes over this paper for me. I have also mentioned DP too and in this respect, it isn’t meant to mean ‘DRILL’ in the parade square context, it is meant to indicate practicing your rifle ‘training drills’. And it’s not only rifles that were downgraded to DP either because in the days of the old ‘number’ radio sets, many of these were classified as DP sets too.
When I read about DP rifles in various places, I get the impression from the armchair experts that they are formulated by someone in the Armourers shop who decides that he’ll make/convert a few rifles in order to …………. NOTHING could be more dangerous nor further from the truth. One other thing too. Do not mix up DP rifles with the ‘higher’ standard (?) ‘sub-standard’ rifles that trickled out of service in the early 50’s. At least there were gauging limits for those!
When need exists for such rifles, the idea is put up to the Brigade Training Major for example and ‘staffed’ up the chain of command where a decision on the matter will be reached after due questioning of all concerned. I’ll take a fictitious unit training for an operational role in bongo-bongo land. The attrition rate of the weapons on the training team, due to the arduous nature of the training is critical is such that they need 20 rifles and 6 GPMG’s that can be used and abused. Authority is given for them to be issued these ‘extra’ DP classified weapons from Ordnance stockpiles. So, in the normal course of events, these are issued from training stocks.
But, let’s say the DP stocks aren’t available, then authority will be issued FROM THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE no less, for such weapons to be made available. Ordnance stores would then select from returned weapons that are deemed to be ‘ZF’ (that’s an Armourers technical explanation that I won’t go into) or BER (Beyond Economic Repair) to select the required amount for conversion to DP specification.
Now, if the required amount cannot be made from the ZF and BER stocks, then the remainder will simply be converted from standard war stocks. You will see from this, that while on the face of it, some 30 years down the line that your bright and shining No1 or No4 rifle LOOKS bright and shining, under the bright and shiny surface might be lurking a metallurgical nightmare ……………… Let me give you an example
During the 60’s and 70’s there was a constant need for No4 DP rifles, not only for cadet Forces but Parachute training too where the actual carrying of a rifle was more important than what the weapon was for. The reason for the attrition in this case was quite understandable. So a small but continuous rolling programme of ‘DP-ing’ was undertaken. Naturally many ZF/BER No4’s plus otherwise serviceable rifles were put into the programme plus a healthy dollop of L1A1 rifles too. Not only were these worn out rifles put into the pot, but we later learned, several thousand extensively fire damaged No4, L1A1 rifles and Bren guns that had been involved in a massive fire. These were aesthetically cleaned down, rebuilt to DP standard and profusely marked JUST so that there could be no doubt about their status. Oh, they looked very nice but what had gone on under the surface was a matter of conjecture. Would YOU fire one? I’ve been an Armourer for a couple of years and while I or your local gunsmith could examine one and give it a bright clean bill of health, would YOU trust it. NO, I wouldn’t either!
Let me give you another example too. NO dates here of course but ‘recently’ several hundred assorted weapons were recovered from a fire ravaged/damaged ship, sunk in low water (and later towed out to sea and scuttled). These were all quickly earmarked for scrap and eventually side tracked for DP/Training use. Like the other example, these were also cleaned, and refurbished, painted and ‘restored’ to aesthetically ‘serviceable’ condition. Oh, they looked good but within a couple of years, these had started to rust from under the welds, seams and joints.
And before I forget, let me remind you of something else too, JUST in case you’re tempted to buy one to use as spare parts. This is what the Armourers bible says. ‘……..it will be assembled as far as possible with components which are below the standard required for a service weapon’. And another thing you ought to remember. There were NO gauging limits for DP rifles. Mmmmmmm, food for thought there!
That’s about it. In my very limited experience as an Armourer and having overseen some of these DP programmes, I can tell you with certainty that they were all profusely marked DP so that their status was unambiguous. Agreed, some might be taken straight from stocks, but the rest ……………
Would YOU trust one? There certainly IS a place for a DP rifle in a collection as it forms a place in the lineage of the breed. But in the cupboard or rack or on the wall. NOT on the firing point.
And how does he know this? An Engineering Graduate, Capt. Peter Laidler is the senior Armourer in the British Army since serving his apprenticeship between January1963 and 66. He is currently the senior technical Officer at the Small Arms School at Warminster. And oversaw the introduction of the current L59 series of DP rifle. Or he just guessed. Pick what you think suits!
Resurrect a DP rifle from ANY nation......., no fear!
Just buy an og condition one.
I have, but when a cheap sporter sits on the shelf at the local shop, it is tempting to take on it on as a project. Not many people would be willing to do that imo
@@BattlefieldCurator well then that’s predicated on cheap sporters. In my experience at least many people want the same money for their hacked up sporters as they want for original condition guns.
@@baneofbanes I have seen those over priced sporters, but I’ve seen more of the cheap ones, at least in my area
@@BattlefieldCurator yah that’s fair. Guess I’m just a bit jaded lol
@@baneofbaneslol
I can't stand bubbad rifles