Lee Enfield Carbine - LEC1

[KCLRPC]

Hello

while spending the schools meeting at Bisley, I ran into a Lee Enfield Carbine at Fultons. it was marked on the left side of the wrist as 1899 LEC 1, I'm afraid I forget the maker, but compared to the antipodean carbine on another thread looked stunningly ugly. I know a few other members here have been to Bisley in the last fortnight, and was wondering if anyone had seen it and formed an opinion? to my (very inexperienced) eyes, the wood looked far too new, but that was my opinion. I was also curious as to why it was stamped on the left of the wrist as opposed to the right.

my main reason for being there was to see a civilian No1 Mk1 which had been target bedded. However, a couple of people steered me away from the mongrel, and theres a nice new toy in my armoury which I shall hopefull post shortly. once my camera makes it down there.

Nick

[Woftam]

Just had a peek in Skennerton. Can't tell you why but it looks like all the Carbines were marked on the left side of the buttsocket and not the right.

Looking forward to the pictures, whatever it is.

[KCLRPC]

very odd. I didn't buy that carbine; £750 for something I'm unsure of is a bit too much of a gamble for me. I'm hoping to get into my gun case tomorrow and post before I'm on holiday. I have to be careful what I find, I have a reputation to uphold at my club :-p

[Aughnanure]

Carbines are marked on the lhs because the carbine bolt handle is bent forward and obscures the markings if they are on the rhs,

Well that's what I was told

[KCLRPC]

I know I may be visualising that the wrong way (especially as I didn't see the bolt for the thing), but surely the same is true for the MkIII's? or does the handle turn down even closer to the body? I'm guessing thats what you mean by forward. it did look strange though, as the barrel went right to the end of the woodwork, in some ways more like an SMLE than some of the carbines I've seen on here.

Nick

[Aughnanure]

The bolt handle is bent forward ie. the knob is further forward than on the rifles as well as being flatened (outer third of the nob cut off.).

It's a long time since I had a carbine but I seem to remember that the bolt on mine was also bent closer to the body.

[Rowdy]

The bolt handle was bent down and flattened to fit into the saddle bucket - but then it had to be bent foreward so as to avoid belting the knuckle on recoil.

I would think the markings were applied to the largest flattest area available - the volley sight/safety spring uses most of the left side on the rifles - but the carbine does not have that although the D-link made it a bit cramped at first.

The No4 used the left side as the spring was different and then they realised that the reciever side was bigger and even flatter.