Ok, going to tell the whole story so bare with me. I listed my 1917 Enfield in .375 H&H the other night on GB to fund a rifle I had been wathing on there in .458 American. Well after I listed it I strted doing searches to see that it came up properly. On searching Custom Enfield, there it was- but there was also a listing for a No1 Mk3 sporter that hadn't come up in my other searches. It also had Lee-Speed in the title, so- needless to say- my interest was piqued. I opened the auction to find a Lee Speed rifle in .22 Hornet! I didn't even know such a critter existed! He had it listed as a sporterized military gun. Well, I couldn't stop myself and had to bid. It's a bit of a basket case but I won out in the end. It will give me another project when I finish my SMLE sporter. Now I can also concentrate on turning the No4 Mk1 into a really nice sporter, instead of a Speed wanna be.

Here's the listing:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Aucti....aspx?Item=179136109

My plans for it:

Since the rear sight is missing, there is no hope of returning it to original, so I'm going to restore it into a really nice squirrel popper. I will have my Father-in-law make a slot filler for the rear sight gap and attach a rear sight to it. I'll save up money and eventually send the wood off to be duplicated and put some nice Walnut on it, the original will be tucked away somewhere. The whole thing will be reblued and call it a day. My only concern is that it might not come with a magazine. I asked the seller because none are shown in the pics, but didn't get an answer before the auction closed. At the worst I can modify a 5 rounder into something of a single shot adapter and work with that. I can't imagine it would be easy to convert a regular mag for the Hornet.

A couple Q's for the Lee experts I know are here:

Could this be an original .22 Hornet gun or is it likely a rechamber? The bbl is stamped .22 Hornet and 45 gr bullets. This Would be the first .22 Hornet Speed Rifle I've ever seen/heard of.

Should this rifle have a dust cover? I have seen some with and some without.

One last thing. Someone needs to buy my .375 so I can replace the money for this!

The BV BP and NP proof marks are, IMHO, "correct" for Birmigham Proof House but not any marking ".22 HORNET". As far as I am aware - and very well may be wrong - proof of that period would just have the nominal diameter ".22" even if centrefire, plus the cartridge length in inches (your 1.43"), but not the additional "HORNET".

But it is a long time since I bothered myself with what are and are not the correct proof markings on British rifles of this period! So don't assume I'm correct!

For instance a ".300" rifle would not have ".300 HOLLAND AND HOLLAND" stamped by the Proof House. Or a .38" Special revolver just ".38" and not ".38 SPECIAL".

So the "HORNET" IMHO has been put on by somebody else. Who?

It is widely known that A G Parker (later Parker-Hale) and A J Parker would re-line the barrel of any shot out rifle to not only .22" LONG RIFLE but also to .22" HORNET. That is fact - you can see the service listed in their early catalogues.

So, IMHO, this is a rifle that has been re-lined by A G Parker (later Parker-Hale) or A J Parker to .22" HORNET and that the "HORNET" stamp is of their doing at the time of that re-line.

So whilst not a BSA "original" Lee-Speed in the Hornet chambering it is nevertheless an authentic gun in every respect and a original conversion carried out, in Birmingham, by the masters of that work.

There are "secret" Birmingham Proof House Codes that can help you date this. I hope this helps:

Hm, that helps a great deal and would explain the absence of the rear sight. Probably wouldn't shoot very well with leaves cut for the .303. I can't wait for it to get here so I can examine it closer. These rifles have been my holy grail for a while now, but I never thought I'd get the chance to own one.

We have no "Proof House" here in the USA.

All firearms are Prooved in England by the Govt. Poof House.

If a firearm is rechambered or rebarreled in England it must be reproofed.

So many times you will find a firearm that has more than one set of "Proof" marks.

Also sometimes the old Proof Marks are struck off, and just the new ones will be on the gun.

Deends on what year the firearm was re Proofed.

congrats on the rifle.
i didn't realize i was bidding against you till the auction was over. i stopped when i thought the cost of a replacement magazine, grip cap and rear sight outweighed what i was going to have invested in the rifle. i figured around $200 for the correct magazine and another $200-300 for the rear sight. if the rifle would have been in just a little bit better condition i would have gone a couple hundred more before stopping.
there was a guy out of south africa who made a reproduction of the leaf & ladder rear sight that it looks like its cut for.

So you were my competition huh? Lol. The rear sight I'm not at all worried about, I figure it was likely removed when the Hornet conversion was done. What I'll likely do is get a slot filler made and mount a simple rear sight for it. The mag could be a problem but I think I might be able to adapt one of the .22 trainer mags or something, failing that a single shot adapter can probably be rigged into a magazine. I'll have it reblued and just have a nice shooter, which is what I want. Eventually I'd like to send the stocks to a duplicator and have some fancy wood cut for it and my project gun. Anyways, thanks for not bidding any higher!

about a year ago one of my nephews friends brought me a No1 Mk3 in 22 hornet that was missing its magazine. i placed a single stack mag from a savage 22 hornet inside the enfield magazine and after i got it positioned right i epoxied it in place.
i'm sure there was a better way to do it but the kid wanted to shoot the his grandfathers rifle as soon as posible and didn't have any money to spend

Oh man! I hadn't even thought of doing anything like that. Definitely worth a try.

I got the rifle today! In the middle of cleaning it up. As soon as I get something to polish up the stock and I'll post some pics. It's actually in better shape than it looked on the auction. The wood is the weak point, it's a little beat up, but no major cracks or anything. It will make a good pattern for a duplicator. I'm excited!

Oh, no mag. I might try to fab up a mag as suggested, but I emailed a custom rifle maker in England that builds Lee Enfields in .22 Hornet and I'm trying to see if I can sweet talk a mag out of them.