I'm looking at beginning my military rifle collection with a Lee Enfield. Not wanting a museum piece, just want a non sporterized shooter. Have these gone up in value? Is $200-$300 still the going price or much higher?

Justin, good choice for a first rifle. Are you looking for a No. 1 Mk.III or a No. 4 Mk. I? You should be able to find one of the latter for $300 or less, and a tired example of the former for even less. I have noticed the No. 1 Mk. IIIs in good shape and unmolested are finally gaining in value.
I have found the No. 4s to be more accurate, thanks to the increased barrel diameter and the adjustable rear aperture sight.

Thanks for the response!

I think I want a No1 Mk.III, Would be interesting to own a 100 year old rifle. I would be happy purchasing either though

From what I have been reading the newer models with the adjustable sights had better triggers as well...making them a little better shooters.

They are neat looking rifles, supposed to have a sweet action. I used to have a Mosin Nagant but I didn't really like it (previous owner had done some welding to it)

Just picked up a No. 4 MKI* made by Savage and U.S. Property marked. A replacement for the one I had to sell 2 years ago.

Enfields are great rifles. Very fast, maybe the fastest bolt gun there is.

You have made a good first choice IMHO.

Very nice drhall!

I haven't done enough studying to know all of the differences between the models and which makers to steer toward...but the general concensus is they are great rifles.

I read somewhere that there were some made in .308win...that would be handy for me, but .303 seems more correct.

Next may be a Gewehr98 or M1 garand. I feel like these old guns could talk your ear off with experiences...if only they could talk.

Dave, I recently passed on a Savage-made Enfield that was sporterized beyond restoring. Neat rifles. Two-groove barrel?

No1MkIII (or known simply as the MkIII before the mid 1920's when they all got their 'number') are priced up quite a bit from even a few years ago.

Any of the earlier rifles w/o the '*' designation and still retaining their cut-off, adj windage rear sight and volley sights are a premium.
Expect to pay in the $700 range and up for WW1 dated examples of these and even more from lesser makers like LSA.
Lithgow (Australian) make rifles always get a premium it seems.
Real early SMLE;s (pre 1907),,the MkI and thier variations MKI* (these pre 1907 rifles don't have the charger bridge, but rather a sliding charger guide on the bolt head} can run well over the 1K mark if complete.

No1MkIII* variations (no cut-off, no volley sights, no windage adj to rear sight) are much more common. $400 seems to be a going price for a good example.
Ishapor Arsenal/India made rifles get the least attention and less $. But there are some nice early pre WW2 made rifles from there as well.

Originality of the piece is a key to price as with all collecting. Matching ser# on action, bbl, bolt ect matter. IIRC, No one ser#'d their magazines on the No1 except Ishapor production and rifles that went thru there for rebuild.

No1MkIII's were made into the WW2 years ('42 I think by BSA).
Lots of variations, markings, even foreign contract rifles. I had an Iraq contract rifle at one time.

The 7.62Nato caliber rifles commonly seen are Ishapor 2A and 2A1 models. Made on the No1MkIII* design but of a better steel than the older 303. The butt stock is the same style but has less drop. That only by the way it is drilled for it's thru bolt. You can fit an old 303cal No1 butt stock to a 2A1 for the retro look if you like.
These were made from the 1960's well into the late 70's or early 80's. 12shot box mag and are nice shooters.
The first 2A1 I bought in the 90's was $70 near new from a supplier. Now they run about $300 at shows and shops.

No4 rifles I never had much interest in. Had one sniper rig that I sold and a couple #5 carbines that went down the road also.
I just like the No1 rifle and still have a couple early ones and a CLLE (Charger Loading Lee Enfield) left over.
They get shot often and it's a nice, easy cartridge to reload for.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Dave, I recently passed on a Savage-made Enfield that was sporterized beyond restoring. Neat rifles. Two-groove barrel?

Yes it has the two groove barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by Buglemintoday:
Very nice drhall!

I haven't done enough studying to know all of the differences between the models and which makers to steer toward...but the general concensus is they are great rifles.

I read somewhere that there were some made in .308win...that would be handy for me, but .303 seems more correct.

As has been mentioned, the Ishapores were in .308 but also the L42A1 which was a sniper rifle and the L8 series of Enfield rifles.

My L-E is a N°4 MkI* made by Savage in 1943. It was FTR'd in Fazarkeley in 1953 where it got a new barrel and stock. Presently it looks like new and shoots quite nicely.

Very nice Andre!

The Market Hall gun show (1,500 table gun show in DFW) is this weekend. I may try to attend and find one for myself

Keep the photos coming if anyone else would like to share

quote:

Originally posted by Andre Mertens:
My L-E is a N°4 MkI* made by Savage in 1943. It was FTR'd in Fazarkeley in 1953 where it got a new barrel and stock. Presently it looks like new and shoots quite nicely.
[IMG]

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...ps0qbr7uee.jpg[/IMG]

That's what my first one looked like. Thus one is very serviceable but had been reissued. Maybe one day I'll find another.

quote:

Originally posted by drhall762:
Just picked up a No. 4 MKI* made by Savage and U.S. Property marked. A replacement for the one I had to sell 2 years ago.

Enfields are great rifles. Very fast, maybe the fastest bolt gun there is.

You have made a good first choice IMHO.

Yup. One of the training evolutions of the Brits was something called the Mad Minute. "The first Mad Minute record was set by Sergeant Major Jesse Wallingford in 1908, scoring 36 hits on a 48 inch target at 300 yards (4.5 mils/ 15.3 MOA)."

If that sounds unbelievable, watch this demonstration (10 shots in 6.5 seconds).

You have half a dozen soldiers capable of shooting approximately this fast and you have the next best thing to a machine gun.

A lot of it is training, practice and discipline. Something a lot of the modern military could improve on.

Went to a closer gun show over the weekend...along with 4 pawnshops and 3 gun stores.

Found 1 in 7.62x51, 1 complete numbers matching smle ($600), and 4 sporterized. One thing I did notice was there was not many classic military arms at any of these places.

One thing I did see a lot of were the Schmidt-Rubin straight pull rifles. Interesting.

Oh well. One will come along that isn't overpriced. I think if I am going to spend $600 on a L-E I'll go ahead and spend the extra $400 and get an M1 garand as a first.

Justin, keep in mind you can often get a sportered one cheaply, and restore it to as-issued configuration. Still a lot of parts and wood available.

Is there anything to look for when doing this? I was worried about purchasing a sporterized because I didn't want to get the stock parts in and find out that it wasn't the original barrel or something didn't match quite right.

Maybe this is the route I will go.

Look at places like SARCO and Numich, by no means all inclusive, and see what parts are and are not available. Also, other forums more dedicated to military firearms, Gun Boards for example often have parts available as well as complete rifle at reasonable prices. Just saw a couple of oddities on that site for sale. Two BSA No I MK III rifles, one Iraqi property marked the other from Siam (Thailand.) They are out there.

Ammo is tough to find for the .303 these days...

I now have my M1 Garand and a No.4 Mk 1 Enfield. I'm still on the hunt for a local smle/ mkIII

I've passed on a few of the SMLE's after checking the bolt heads to see what # they have on them. Apparently a few #'s of the bolt heads are really difficult to find now (to fix any head spacing issues)

Ok stop looking for numbers on SMLE #1 MK3 bolt heads; they weren't numbered.
It was the #4s that have the several different length bolt heads.

Got a jungle carbine (receiver/bbl) somewhere. I'll take pics

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Dave, I recently passed on a Savage-made Enfield that was sporterized beyond restoring. Neat rifles. Two-groove barrel?

They claim the two groove Savage barrels are just as good as four. sporterized Enfields sell for about two hundred bucks up here and are very common. originals are becoming very expensive quickly.

Grizz

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams1:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Dave, I recently passed on a Savage-made Enfield that was sporterized beyond restoring. Neat rifles. Two-groove barrel?

They claim the two groove Savage barrels are just as good as four. sporterized Enfields sell for about two hundred bucks up here and are very common. originals are becoming very expensive quickly.

Grizz

Same said about US Springfields. I've had both, couldn't tell any difference.

Accuracy specs were the same for both 2 and 5 groove barrels.
And on the 03A3, same accuracy specs 2 or 4.
No need to avoid one or the other.
Good Enfields are definitely not 2-300 here any more. Double that at the low end.
I have a #1MK3 with a like new bore, full military for sale if anyone wants one. It's a BSA. 1918. PM me.