Found this in a pawn shop after going to the local gun show today (scored 3000 old CCI primers for $20 total).

As the subject says, the rifle is a 1905 Sparkbrook ShtLE MkI***.  I have been "out" of Lee Enfield collecting for a number of years, so I need to do some research on this.  Not sure if it is "correct", restored, bitser or what.  It is also the most I have paid for any SMLE (I think I paid more for the Lee Speed LLE that I wish I still had) at $650 plus tax.  I don't think I paid too much (or too, too much anyway).  I'll be breaking out The Lee Enfield Story for research!

Crown over ER
Sparkbrook
1905
S^HT.L.E.
I ***

the three * are all hand stamped, of course.

Has a cotton web sling brass hardware
Magazine cutoff
Front and Rear Volley sights are present (man was I excited to see those!)
Charger loading head is intact

The original serial number is lined out and reads

P
17914

Above that is a later-stamped "ER 3715"

The bolt and nose cap SN both have "3715".
Underneath the rear sight is a lined-out SN and then the rifle's original SN P17914.
Barrel is marked "HV" behind the rear sight.
The bore looks pretty good to the naked eye.  Muzzle crown is OK, without serious dings at the bore edge.
So far I have not found an importers stamp on the rifle.

Pics?  Did someone say pics?









Any help with ID of the brass disk is welcome, as well as thoughts as to it's originality.

Any and all comments are welcome.  I will be cross-posting this on other appropriate forums, so I apologize in advance if anyone has to see this in more than one place!

Rob

Nice score!

The lined out original s/n and the ER prefixed new s/n points this as being on of the Enfields supplied to Ireland in the 20's to arm its new army...

You find them all either prefixed CR or ER....and are the most common way of finding these No.1 Mk 1 (usually ***), and usually they still have their early features such as the different rear sight, volley sights, earlier mag types, and the right side charger bridge mounted on the bolt head, and if your lucky the different rear handguard. Yours has all these features...very nice.

They are almost always lacking any import marks, they were likely imported in one batch before the marking requirements...

I will look up your marking disc markings and see if I can find anything on it in my "Broad Arrow" book....

A super desireable piece for an Enfield collector! One of the Holy Grails usually....

brass disc

2nd Hong Kong Shore(?) Battery(?) Royal Artillery

...would dig more but it's 03.30 here!!

NICE SMLE

Congrats.. thats a beautiful piece!

That's a really nice looking piece of history there!

Very nice , Looking forward to learning more

Wow, excellent find!!!

Oh my God! That is a dream incarnate. You lucky, lucky, lucky man.

Close...

2nd Company, Hong Kong and Singapore Battalion, Royal Artillery

Thanks for all the comments, guys.  So far I still have not seen an importer mark.

Since all of the numbered parts appear to match either the original SN or the one added when it was sent to Ireland, it seems it may be original configuration.  No way to tell with the non-numbered parts like the cutoff and volley sights.

Thanks for the info on the unit disk.  Seems really unlikely that it would have been left there when sent to Ireland, doesn't it?

I hope to shoot it soon.  Just found out my club's rifle and pistol range is going to be closed through Feb at least for reconstruction.

Rob

Meh, they probably didn't care, and just left it....

That is an awesome marking disc!

Gorgeous rifle! Still in full Mk. I*** guise, what a find!

The unit disc doesn't belong to that rifle, as you've likely surmised (it's dated 1904 and the rifle wasn't even made yet). Given markings and date, it's almost certainly from a MHAC Mk. II (Martini-Henry Artillery Carbine) or MMAC/MEAC (Martini Metford/Martini-Enfield Artillery Carbine), they used identical discs.

Bumping this up to compare with the "CR" rifle posted by MvolkJ today.

Rob

Now we just need someone to show up with a G prefix wire-wrap and we’ll have the whole Irish set!

NICE!!!

That's the one with the slidy bit on the bolt instead of a legit charger bridge, right?

It's been a while since I watched C&Rsenals episodes on the L/E's