Heads up for guys who like Enfields in different flavors: Big 5 Sporting Goods has No 4 Mk I Enfields on sale for $159.00, thru July 8th. They're from Century Arms, and they're made by Savage with walnut stocks, 2-groove barrels, 300-600 flip sights, and a "U.S. Property" stamp along with the U.S. Ordnance "Flaming Bomb" cartouche.
The local store had two in stock this morning. They were both in pretty good shape, with the wood a little dinged up but very good bores. The machining and finish on one was noticeably smoother than on the other, so my nephew stuck that one on layaway.
that would be an interesting one to have. I have seen one in one of my local big 5's also, but the next time i went there it wasnt in stock. It was kinda dinged up though
troy2000 - Most of the Big 5 rifles I have seen are not real pretty (as pretty rifles go), but they are in reasonably good condition; metal ok, wood pretty rough. They usually shoot ok, and are not real bad rifles. A couple of the M1 Garands had worn operating rods, that wanted to dismount all of the time. Replaced the operating rods, and they were ok, except that the receiver was not USGI, and not a forging.
troy2000 - Most of the Big 5 rifles I have seen are not real pretty (as pretty rifles go), but they are in reasonably good condition; metal ok, wood pretty rough. They usually shoot ok, and are not real bad rifles. A couple of the M1 Garands had worn operating rods, that wanted to dismount all of the time. Replaced the operating rods, and they were ok, except that the receiver was not USGI, and not a forging.
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Of course, we don't buy unless it looks good. But I've gotten a 91/30 and M44 Mosin that seem to have been unissued, as opposed to rearsenaled.
And as I said, this Enfield looks great. The only strange thing was the sling. It was made from a piece of old horse reins riveted at one end and sewn with twine at the other, permanently looped to the swivels with no adjustment. I read somewhere that the U.S. Property Enfields showing up here the last year or so came over from Turkey, and a lot have makeshift slings of one sort or another.
My nephew's first Enfield from Big 5 last year was a disappointment, though. It looked pretty decent, but when he took the stock apart at home enough dirty sand for a beach fell out. It turned out to have good-sized rust pits in the bottom of the barrel, where sand had been trapped between the metal and wood.
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Im going tomorrow to check em out . maybe i will get one of those too! good thing im a batchelor my house is fillin up with ammo and things..smells like eds red...
troy2000 - Most of the Big 5 rifles I have seen are not real pretty (as pretty rifles go), but they are in reasonably good condition; metal ok, wood pretty rough. They usually shoot ok, and are not real bad rifles. A couple of the M1 Garands had worn operating rods, that wanted to dismount all of the time. Replaced the operating rods, and they were ok, except that the receiver was not USGI, and not a forging.
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You can buy a Garand at Big 5???? I've never seen one.
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My first priority will be to reinstate the assault weapons ban as soon as I take office.
The M1 Garands, I saw, that were/are at Big 5 were put together from USGI parts onto an investment cast receiver. One of the receivers had "LITHGOW" almost ground off on the underside where the receiver comes into contact with the stock; the other receiver was ground in the same location but it would have taken an acid etch to reveal what was ground off. A couple of months later, I saw a Springfield Armory, Inc. (commercial) M1 Garand, which was brought to our range by a regular customer. It had some problems in its operation, and I suspected that it was not properly lubed (a normal problem with Springfield Armory, Inc. (commercial) products. Upon disassembly (OH HORRORS, THIS MIGHT HAVE VOIDED THE WARRANTY), we saw the word "LITHGOW" on the bottom of the receiver where it contacts the stock, and I was correct, the Springfield Armory, Inc. (commercial) M1 Garand needed to be lubed everywhere except for the bolt and the receiver. It was bone dry, as seems to be the norm with Springfield Armory, Inc. (commercial) products.
I suspect that Springfield Armory, Inc. (commercial) had rejected some receivers they had received from "LITHGOW", and an opportunist Entrepreneur bought them up, along with some USGI M1 Garand parts, assembled them into rifles and sold them to Big 5 as well as other companies. Some of them have problems, and some seem to work ok.
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well i went and got one of those u.s. enfields $159 with 10% off cause i used another one of those coupons from the website. they had two examples one looked like it had been in great shape and then stored someplace damp, frosting everywhere.i dont think it had ever seen cosmo.the other one was smothered in the stuff! i pushed a 6 inch cosmo turd out of that thing and when i got it nice and clean lo and behold! a really nice bore very shiny. the magazine had a spot of rust on it but that is all. i am quite pleased with this gun. my question is what is that little rod about 3 in. long coming out from under the barrel? thanks again!
I could not miss with FMJ or cast bullets one hole groups.
However I could not hit the broad side of a barn with hunting bullets.
That is what got me interested in ballistics.
The barrel design over compressed the thin jacket of hunting bullets, cutting the jacket. The jacket would peal off in flight and the bullet would go god knows where.
When I reloaded with 308 instead of 311 after necking down it hit one hole groups again.:target:
I had one at one time 
