Evening Gents,

Backstory- My grand father recently gave me this rifle. He has had it for years and at some point bought the shorter stock for it and converted it to how it looks in the pictures below.  My question, for you experts out there is, what can you tell me about what this rifle began life as? What model and designation is this? Could anyone point me in the proper direction for parts and assembly for returning this to its former glory?

I hope this is the proper forum! Thanks in advance everyone.

WWI No1 MkIII

Try hear

As mentioned, it is a WWI era (1918) rifle. Started life in the No 1 Mk III guise. Appears to have had front sight assembly removed and a sporter-style ramp added. I can't tell from photo, but barrel length may have been adjusted/cut back. It is export marked (there are proof/test marks and the "England" printed on it). Someone with a bit more knowledge can confirm, but may have been a 1950s-60s export. Good looking wood in the photo. It may be possible to restore it to military configuration, but a barrel length measurement might be a good idea first. If it has been trimmed, there is little to no chance of restoration.

Still, has some family history/heritage, so that is cool no matter what.

That should anchor a deer or two with ease...

Too bad it has been sporterized as it is  a less Common " Peddle Scheme " rifle, Should have a NRF or SSA stamp on back left edge of recvr were bolt goes in.

Barrel length comes between 24.5-25 inches, depending where you cut off the measurement. It's still a fun gun, but I think it deserves its glory back.  Any tips on fore ends? Things to stay away from or not?

I'd keep it as it is. Bedding mkIIIs into original-type stocks can be a royal pain. They can be very particular about how they are bedded and if not done properly they'll shoot way off POA.

That rifle was sold that way. You can tell by the clip on ramp for the front sight to make it look more "sporty".  

I suspect he may have refinished it as they are usually found with a black painted forend tip.

Sears, Wards, and Western Auto as well as a score of wholesale houses sold them with that clip-on FS ramp. Some even sported either a shortened 5-round mag or a blocked 10 rounder due to some state's hunting regulations at the time which banned hunting with a rifle that held over five rounds.

There is a black-tipped one with a blocked mag sitting at a local pawn shop. Looking at that one I suspect you could get a stock set and hardware from Springfield Sporters and "rescue" it to a point.

Can you give us a close up pic of the front site assembly.  That will be the kicker whether it can be restored.  Maybe not be able to get the front end piece on without totally removing the site that is there.

Matt

If it's the clip-on type it can be restored as the barrels were not cut back or the FS molested.....From what I could tell just the "unnecessary" hardware removed and the stocks refinished and if they had a ID disk hole they were filled in with a wood plug and sanded flush.

It's a MKIII not Mk III*- it HAD the magazine cutoff at one point.
Its not restorable, and restoring a MKIII is cost prohibitive to just buying one in the original trim. It also takes alot of knowledge to get them shooting right it you do get a mismatched or matched stock set from different rifle/rifles. Shes a fine shooter as she is. A tip, if you reload, commercial ammo has a thinner rim thickness, throwing off headspace-- if you full length resize every time, youll stretch the brass and wont get much more than 3-4 reloads if that.  Either neck size only after fire-forming, or one step more-- ruber o-ring over the rime, to force the case head to the bolt face. no stretching back on firing that way- then neck size. You'll get normal amounts of case life that way. ;)

Never heard that tip before-O-ring every firing or just the first during fire forming? I'll have to try that if I get another .303.

Just the first fire forming. If you full length resize after that-- no point you just negated the whole reason for doing it.

Thanks-I figured you meant neck size after that, I only had an Enfield for a short time after learning to reload, so didn't get to the point of looking into maximizing brass life-between not having it long and not shooting it much there wasn't much reason at the time.