SMLE Pattern 14 No.2
Posted: Wed May 18, 2016 4:37 pm
I went to the Northern Shooting Show in Harrogate the weekend before last and came home with this. It is a SMLE Pattern 14 No.2 training rifle. It is converted from a 1914 dated SMLE MkIII. The barrel has been bored out and a .22 liner added. The bore is bright and it shoots OK. The numbers match on the receiver, barrel, bolt, nosecap and forestock. The rear sight has been renumbered to match. The volley sight pointer is missing. The conversions were approved in 1916 so I presume it would be about this time the conversion was done. They were originally not issued with a magazine but later an empty box was added to catch the empties. The odd thing about this rifle is the magazine well has had a plate added to form an internal box to catch the empties. I don't know if this has been done by a local unit armourer or a later civilian owner. I would be interested if anyone has seen this before. A few pics.
Regards
Peter.
Regards
Peter.