Just most people want original stocks to restore sporters.  I’m looking for a sporterized or broken No 1 MK III forend.  (Or forestock, see #66 here.)

The portion from the rear to the front of the receiver is most important.  The rest can be junk.

Know of any place offering junk Enfield wood, some gunsmith with a junk stock, etc.?

https://www.apexgunparts.com/rifles/bolt-action/lee-enfield/enfield-1-mkiii.html

One option would be to order one of the .410 enfield indian 'muskets' from Century

https://store.centuryarms.com/ishapore-410-musket-poor-incomplete.html

Per the listing "Buyers can expect to receive a serviceable forend and buttstock althought expect minor cracks, chips, etc. These do not include a bolt and may be missing other minor parts."

This would get you the part you need, plus a bunch of 'bonus' rough condition parts.

I REALLY shouldn't ask...but what price are those listed at? I have had a weird desire to build a DeLisle like carbine.

I've got an LSA No1 that was sporterized that I got a new Forestock for.  You can have the old piece if you want it. It is cut for the magazine cut off though and has the indent for the volley sight if that matters to you.

Used to be cheaper a couple years back

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I might have what you want. I'll send pic when I get home. You can have it if it's what you want.

@NoMoAMMO
@TuskenRaider

Gentlemen, I’d be very grateful.  

@k1rodeoboater

That’s exactly what I’m doing!  I just can’t bring myself to butcher good original wood.

If that's what you want you can have the bolt also

@TuskenRaider IM sent.

...crap I might have to order one.  Now I wish I still had my C&R license.

Preban glad it worked out!


K1 I bought several of the more complete versions and a couple of these a while back to build one nice  .410 and have spare parts. The 2 I ordered that were under this sku were both missing upper handguards and one was missing a nosecap. Finish on one was pretty rusty. I haven't really touched them since I got them but just wanted to give you a heads up. If you order I order at least 3!

Thank you too for your kindness and advice.  It is appreciated!  

That $30 is still the best deal in the firearms world.  We may not have all the foreign milsurps we used to have, but it’s still an excellent thing to have.

I’ve got and am getting more C&R NFA stuff.  It’s great saving one $200/$5 tax, one set of waits, dealer fees, and not needing a 5320 to go interstate.

Yeah I dragged my feet on renewing mine, then moved twice in a year, haven't bothered to resubmit since other things have been a priority.  TBH I have a project list a mile long before I even get to the gun stuff.  I probably don't need to keep adding to it.

I saw centerfire had some drill rifles.

I saw too.  But J&G is a little better; they have the equivalent of Centerfire’s $160 better condition ones ones for $130 or $120 for 2+.

We would like to se any updates when you start the project. I always wanted to make one.

I've been resisting FOing....but I have a feeling I won't be for much longer.  

My brain keeps churning on this as a project idea which really doesn't help matters either.  Plus there's something cool about resurrecting "drill" rifles that's cool.  I have 2 03A4geries as well as 2 rebuilt 03A3s from drill rifles and have been looking for a donor for a 1903A1 replica.  I've even been looking at modern actions for a "modern De Lisle", but my mind keeps floating back to the OG No1 MK3 based De Lisle even though it's not necessarily better, easier, or cheaper.

The 3 I received from JG are all in pretty good shape. 1 has no paint, 1 has red only and 1 has red and white. All have rods crossdrilled and welded through the chamber, firing pins cut and bolt face welded and ground

@NoMoAMMO are the extractor bits all there?  I know Numrich has stripped bolts and firing pins.  Are yours DP stamped all over the place I know that some were and some weren't

Yeah extractors are good but they are hit heavy with the DP markings. I'll try and get some pics this evening and show you.

@NoMoAMMO

Please!  Mine appears to have absolutely np markings, so I'm curious to know if I'm missing something or..?

A lot of the batch that cam in 7 ish years ago didn't have DP stamped on a lot of the parts and dint have the barrels plugged either. I used a couple for some sporter restos but most I've seen of this current batch or welded and stamped.

This is the one with no paint I cleaned the cosmo off of tonuse as a display for the grenade cup.
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The other still in cosmo
All are Indian rifles, no Brit or Aussie made.
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Oof they slagged em through the receiver?  Thought they did just the barrels.  Same on this set you just got?

Yeah these 3 are from Century in the last couple years. They are the first I've seen with the rod through the receiver like that. I would guess JG is the same way since this last batch all came in around the same time.

OP, search eBay for "Enfield (stock, forend)".  I see cut down forends for sale regularly.

@nomoammo

Yeah, my bolt head is fine and without any DP marks at all.  I'll give the rest of my rifle a review.



@K1rodeoboater

I guess (?) it depends..?  The process always involves drilling through the receiver and chamber, hammering a pin through, and welding the pin in place in some manner.  That's where the commonalities end.  On my drill rifle, there's a very basic weld only on the left side of the receiver.  No welding in the chamber or on the right side of the receiver.  I have seen some where there's also a weld on the right side of the receiver.  I've seen a photo of another elsewhere online where there was some weld in the chamber too.  Either proscribed drill conversion methods changed over time or the armorers involved did things differently.

I've had a couple in the past that only the bolt face welded/firing pin cut with a couple DP marks. No rods or welds anywhere else on the rifle.

Yeah that's what I remembered from the Ishapore DP rifles, but that was probably ~10 years ago now....fuck I'm starting to sound like one of those old timers, "Back in my day surplus ammo and guns were cheap!".

Dude I know the feeling

I remember adding 91/30's to orders just because it gave me free shipping and was $10-20 more than just the shipping cost.  I try not to think back on how the surplus market was.  I ain't got no DeLorean and back then I was a broke college student and just starting out adult.  And this was only about 20yrs ago, so far from the heyday of things in the C&R world.

I just PCS'ed back from Europe in early 03 and went crazy. LOVED the SOG flyers in my mailbox!

I was a FFL/SOT back when and bought Chinese Type 53 rifles in bulk for $35 each.  They didn’t have a matching part anywhere, were CHEWED, and were minute of barn at best, but they sold like hotcakes for $49-59 each.

@prebans are you going to go with the Rhineland Arms kit or are you going to try to replicate the original with a shortened bolt and reworked receiver?

@k1rodeoboater

The Rhineland kit arrived.  I will use that to start, but look forward to eventually do a shortened bolt and reworked receiver.

From what I've read it's a fairly easy conversion. Hardest part is getting the OG barrel off.

I’ve already got the steel drill pin out.  Now it’s just finding a barrel wrench.

Nice!  How much of a PITA was it?  Use a mill?

@k1rodeoboater

You’ll laugh, but it was a pain solely because of the tools I used.

One hand file.  

That’s it for my weld removal!  I just sat there and slowly filed away at the weld.  Once I thought enough of it was gone, I used whatever basic hammer was in reach and a pin punch.  The pin popped right out.

I’ll post pics later today.

@tuskenraider

HAPPILY.  And for your kindness, I’ll bring it and ammo along for you the next time I wander down to Texas!

No kidding.  Im probably just going to pick up a few drill rifles then instead of looking for a sporterized one that is a good donor candidate then
Part of me wants to grab a No4 and make a more modernized "sniper" esque version....because why not.

@Prebans

I had an idea the other day.  The No1Mk3's all have a weird bolt thread pitch for the bolt head.  The No4's have a standard thread pitch on them.  If you're cutting down the bolt you can thread the body for the No4 bolt head and use a No4 bolt.  I think you can swap over the No1Mk3's extractor, spring, and screw too.  The No4 cocking piece and firing pin will work with the No1MK3 bold body, and because the firing pin is threaded in a standard pitch you can thread it with a die and cut off whatever you don't need.

I don't know if the NO4 bolt body is compatible with the No1 receiver, but if it is and you can find a cheap one that might be a good route to go.  

@k1rodeoboater

Thank you.  I haven’t gotten that far, but this is something which could make the project easier.  I’ll check into it.

An update:

On 03/30, I submitted an eF1 for the SBR and suppressor for this project.  On 04/02, I submitted an eF4 for one unrelated item.  On 04/02, I overnighted one set of fingerprint cards for all three items, including the cover page for each item and a note that a 11-month paper F4 is languishing if they want to do a batch approval.

On 04/20, ATF approved the SBR.  No word on the suppressor or the eF4.    My fear is that I’ll hear “No cards received” from ATF over the other two.  (Happened to me years ago.)  I sent an email to the ask the experts on 04/20 and still no response today.

We’ll see how this plays out.  Now I’m just waiting on an action wrench.

Are you going for close to the original design?  

Have you seen these?

https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-279389.html

https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-275987.html

https://collections.royalarmouries.org/object/rac-object-275988.html

I was going to deviate when it came to the suppressor since it's a 2 stamp gun originally and I'd like to stick to 1 stamp.  My rough idea was to take a 8-10" section of a barrel blank, turn it down to slide past the threads in the receiver, run the barrel threads further than needed to use a barrel nut to also act as the endcap for the suppressor tube.  Thread the end of the barrel and perm attach the requisite length off center "big ass monocore/muzzle brake" to reach a "16.1" barrel.  IOT utilize all of the space between the barrel nut and muzzle the first "baffle" would be flat, perhaps size it to slide a steel "washer" in front of the AL baffle to take the brunt of the muzzle blast. Suppressor tube would be slid over and threaded onto the endcap/barrel nut and on the opposite end I'd use another AL endcap threaded on and secured to the end of the brake/monocore with 2 screws would look just like the original.  Was thinking of using 7075 AL for the brake, barrel "nut & receiver endcap" as well as the final endcap and 2" OD thin wall steel for the tube.  Titanium would be super Gucci and light but easily 20x the cost.  Not planning on porting the barrel as I don't think it will be needed

Of course there's also the logic of using an even shorter barrel to keep velocities down and just threading the blank so it pokes out a few inches past the receiver effectively reducing the "reflex" blast chamber area behind the muzzle and extending it forwards instead.  Secure it to the receiver with the same barrel nut/end cap, but just have an even longer monocore brake.

List of Enfield thread pitches and sizes

@K1rodeoboater

I have, but thank you!  Things got weird here over the past two weeks, so I've had little time for this project.  Seeing those photos reminds me that it's time to get back to work again.  

All I know is that I want to match the original DeLisle externally.  I haven't decided whether to keep everything original or to restomod with a modern baffle stack.  I do know that the DeLisle wasn't known for its accuracy and occasionally had feeding/extraction issues, so I want to resolve those problems no matter what.  I also know that I strongly prefer to be able to use unmodified 1911 mags versus doing the welded rib game.  But otherwise, I haven't done much beyond Googling about modern .45 acp baffle stacks.  The eccentric stack will be the hardest part unless I do something internally like Denall's Silent Destroyer.

Titanium is under consideration too.  It'd add to costs but the weight savings are astounding.  A cubic inch of steel weighs 0.278-0.286 lbs while a cubic inch of titanium weighs 0.163 lbs.  That becomes significant on a chunky 7 lbs 8 oz carbine sporting a massive can and baffle stack / monocore.  My only question is how it'd affect balance; seems like most of the weight would be to the rear of the receiver.  My paranoid (or is it realistic?) side also wonders about a suppressor ban akin to 922(o), making titanium even better.  It's not like these are known for overheating under sustained fire or anything.

Beyond cost, any reason you're doing a one-tax gun?  I considered one-stamp solely for ease of interstate transport, but I want the suppressor easier to repair/rebuild (even if it must be done by a SOT for legality) if something ever goes wrong.  That's why I'm doing two, although ATF has only approved the SBR to this point.



Thank you!  Yeah, that bolt head thread pitch is ... wacky.

Right now I'm deciding how to remove the barrel.  All indications point to Enfield barrel removals being a massive PITA.  I've found stories of trashed receivers from doing it wrong.  Brownells is out of its action wrenches, but I've also found complaints and comments elsewhere ranging from them being overpriced to just not being the best tool for the job.  I found one gunsmith who specializes in British and Commonwealth firearms and who has a reputation for doing Enfield rebarreling right.  He charges $150 plus return shipping, though he said to add $85/hr if he must set up the bolt with a different face for headspace issues.  The man is a SOT and has a transferable Vickers for sale, so I wonder if he's worked on or built DeLisles before.  I don't mind outsourcing when there's someone far superior, but I'm also using this to gain some knowledge too.  Outsourcing doesn't help in that department.