E - Gazette Mk II
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E - Gazette Mk II New Zealand Antique & Historical Arms Association Inc. # 29 May 2013 EDITORIAL My thanks to all of you who have contributed mate- The e-Gazette Mk II is a monthly news-letter rial for this edition. circulated free to members of the NZAHAA and their friends by e-mail only. It may be There has been no shortage of events for collectors in copied and forwarded to fellow collectors, April. The first weekend was the Auckland Arms we ask that any material used by others is ac- Fair, perhaps a little quieter than past years, but still knowledge to this publication. plenty of opportunities for buyers. There was also some interesting displays for those who just wanted to look. The second weekend saw our Association Copyright where indicated remains with the AGM held in Invercargill followed by an auction contributor of the item. hosted by Southland Branch which also included a trading table. The third weekend had Carvell’s auc- Views expressed here are those of the con- tion in Auckland and the month will be rounded of tributors and do not necessarily reflect those with Rogers Militaria auction in Wellington. So if you didn’t add to your collection this month it was of the NZAHAA or its Branches. not for lack of opportunity. All correspondence should be addressed to: I would like to express my thanks to Dave King for The Editor Phil Cregeen at: taking me round and those members of Southland [email protected] Branch, who wish to remain anonymous, who al- lowed me to view their collections and take photo- graphs. To unsubscribe e-mail the Editor. Phil NEW ZEALAND ARMS REGISTER WEBSITE NOW LIVE VISIT http://www.armsregister.com/ The register includes 114 information pages published to date and a few related articles. Meanwhile research continues and we are preparing more information pages to upload. CAN YOU HELP: We are currently researching the Lee Enfield No 5 Jungle Carbine, known to be used by NZSAS in Malaya in 1955. But did any other NZ services use it and its No 5 bayonet? Are there any NZ marked No 5s? Also the use by NZ forces and Home Guard of the Springfield M 1903 rifle and M 1905 bayonet and or the Enfield M 1917 rifle and bayonet. How was the US bayonet scabbard attached to NZ web equipment? If you can provide any documentary, photographic or anecdotal answers to any of the above please contact me at: [email protected] FROM OUR READERS After reading that story about the Lee-Enfield's in Afghanistan in the current issue of the e-Gazette # 28 it brought to mind the story about my youngest son's circa 1942 Lithgow SMLE. The story begins about ten years ago in Franklin's Gun Shop in Athens, Georgia (U.S.A.) Franklin's is roughly a 4500 square foot retail store that is kept fully stocked with hunting and fishing supplies. On the right side of the store as you go in is the firearm's sec- tion. Although I am guessing, I think that they probably have more than a thousand brand new guns in stock-everything from pistols to rifles and shotguns as well as ammo and reloading supplies. On that particular trip to Franklin's I and my then 22 year old son, Kirk, were just browsing the guns they had when he spied in the "Used" rack a beat up, old 1942 Lithgow made SMLE. Obviously, the rifle had seen a lot of use from 1942 onward and when he handed the rifle to me, out of habit I pulled the bolt back and took a look at the bore. Was I in for a surprise! The bore of that beat up old rifle was absolutely pristine! I was somewhat perplexed by the seeming contradiction: a beat up old rifle with a "mint" bore. Recalling my misspent youth in a Southern military academy, I came to the conclusion that this rifle had probably been used as a "Drill Rifle" more than anything else during its term of military service. Drill Rifles get handled a lot, dropped a lot and generally beat up-but rarely shot. The price tag on the rifle noted that it was only $65.00, not a bad deal. When Kirk saw the bore, he suddenly wanted that Lithgow! He took the rifle from me, went over to the owner of the store and commenced to "haggle" the price down to $60.00 (and even man- aged to get a free box of .303 military surplus Mark VII ball ammo thrown in on the deal! We went back home to the farm and he tried out the SMLE. It was definitely FUN to shoot. After the rifle was given a thorough cleaning, the rifle went into the gun closet and stayed there for a few weeks until Kirk decided he wanted to shoot in a NRA Hi Power Match at the Riverbend Gun Club in North Georgia. That was fine and dandy until Kirk asked me to "accurize" the SMLE. I shoot replica P-58's in N-SSA competition and "accurizing" a M/L Enfield is a piece of cake: just do a "Lock Job" to get the trigger pull down to 3 pounds and glass bed the barrel. Now, that SMLE was a critter of a different sort. First of all, I had to deal with that two piece stock. I pulled the butt stock off of the rifle and found a piece of dried out dinosaur skin had been used as a "washer." I replaced it with a piece of neoprene the same size and "glassed" the butt stock to the rest of the rifle. I let the bedding harden for two days and then tackled the receiver. I took my Dremel Tool, relieved wood here and there and "glassed" the receiver in the stock. The SMLE has a "thin reed" of a barrel-so I de- cided to leave well enough alone. We let the glass harden for about a week, then it was a trip to the backyard range. Off the bench at 100 yards the old SMLE threw some beautiful groups. Obviously, my glass bedding and "trigger job" had helped much more than it hurt! As I do with all my other glass bedding jobs, the only way you can see it is to take the rifle apart. Kirk and I had decided to go to the Riverbend Hi Power Match the following Saturday. As luck would have it on Friday, the local Wal Mart announced a sale on Remington .303 rounds. I went to the store and purchased 6 boxes (120 rounds.) Given enough time, I would have "developed" a much more accurate load for that SMLE, but we hadn't even purchased a set of reloading dies in .303 by then, so Kirk had to use the Remmie factory ammo. The Riverbend Match was a standard Hi Power Match with targets shot at 200, 300 & 600 yards. During the match and in all the different stages, Kirk and the old Lithgow SMLE just kept putting rounds in the black. There were about 20 competitors in the match and about half of them were shooting $3,000.00 & $4,000.00 "Custom Built Hi Power Match Rifles." Between relays, when Kirk wasn't shooting, the Lithgow was laid on a blanket behind the line with the action open and a Yellow plastic action block inserted in the open action. Pretty soon "the word spread" about Kirk's shooting with the Lithgow because a steady stream of shooters came walking down to our position. They would look at the old beat up Lithgow and scratch their head in amazement and wonderment. That was THE BEST PART of the entire match. No-Kirk didn't win the match, but he turned in a decent score and this was the 1st High Power Match he had ever shot in. I guess we proved that an old SMLE, given some TLC and a bedding job can really shoot! Not too bad for a design almost a Century old! Since that match Kirk has used that Lithgow SMLE to take about a half dozen deer at ranges from 50 to 300 yards. I still shoots GREAT! Not bad for an old war vet. All My Best Southron Sanders Kirk and his Lithgow SMLE AN INTERESTING BAYONET By Phil Cregeen © 2013 This month we have a Volunteer Pattern 1837 Brunswick Bayonet to consider, I bought this one on Trade Me (a New Zealand auction website) recently. This bayonet has a 547 mm (21.5 inch) spear point blade with a 260 x 5 mm (10.5 inch) fuller down the centre, at the cross guard the blade measures 37 x 4.5 mm. The ribbed hilt and cross guard is made of brass and secured by riveting the end of the blade tang. A locking spring is fitted to the top edge of the hilt and secured by a screw, its release button protruding from the bottom edge. Above detail of hilt Brunswick bayonet bar There are no marks on this bayonet, those made at Enfield are marked “ENFIELD”. Scabbards for these bayonets are black leather with a brass locket and chape. Reference: British & Commonwealth Bayonets B 112 to B114. Do you have an interesting bayonet to share? FROM THE GUN ROOM threads would be cut. Other examples of recycling reject by Andrew Edgcombe © 2013 grenade body’s exist with the more common “Mills Bomb’s” ( No 5, No 23 and No36 ) being made into money boxes, ink wells, book ends etc which were sold as patriotic souvenirs/fundraisers.