My son just got back from Afghanistan and brought this rifle home with him. I was hopeing that someone can give me some information on this rifle. First of all on the side plate it is stamped 1857 TOWER, there is the British crown with the letters VR stamped below the crown. On the inside of the lock plate is the outline of another crown with one letter stamped inside of it. The top portion of that letter starts out being the letter Y and the lower portion of that same letter looks to be the letter J. Below that is the letter B and then below that are the numbers 32 followed below by the British military Broadhead stamp. Also there is T&L and J F. There are several other markings but they look to be inspectors markings. The barrel is 33 inches long and in the white. All furniture is brass. Does anyone know any history of this rifle, or information that can get me started in finding out information on this rifle. Thanks, Mike.

It is likely an Enfield rifle.

This it?

http://www.picketpost.com/images/ENFIELD1.JPG

Monty Whitley has a fair number of pictures of Enfields and other guns on his website. Look under foreign guns.

http://www.montywhitley.com/main.html

South 40 That is what this looks like from the picture that you posted. Do you have any more information, or a web sight that I can go to? Thanks, Mike.

These are a couple of sites that might be of help.

http://www.researchpress.co.uk/targets/enfieldm02.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/vt/milsurp/p53.html

From what I have been able to find, what I have here is a P-56 Short Rifle, which is a variation of the P-53. This one having a 33 inch barrel as compared to the 39 inch length of the P-53. Thanks for the replies, Mike.