Milsurp After Hours

In a weak moment yesterday (10th) I bought a No.4. I must admit to never having been a fan of these but the price was right. It is a Long Branch and is in very good condition except the two grouve barrel which has a bit of crud/rust/??? in it, once I get my hands on the rifle then there may be an improvement. It's a bright shiny bore except for the spots of aforementioned. Has had a couple of modifications the main one of which is that the 200 yd aperture of the flip sight has been opened up to a 'V'. I've seen this before and the first one was in an Ordnance store and had presumeably never been in civilian hands; which leads me to believe that it may be a unit armourer's mod for someone who preferred quicker target pickup. Photos to follow, hopefully today.

The price? $A 30. Yep! Thirty devalued Aussie dollars

Sounds like a cast boolit shooter Eoin, those two grooves like Loverins they have somewhere for the displaced alloy to go.

This slightly out of focus shot shows the altered 200 yd sight.



This was supposed to be cropped, ah! well. Note that the curve at the back of the small of the butt has been deepened giving a more positive grip. It looks as if it was done long ago and unlike a lot of stock mods the stamps on the underside of the small haven't been touched.


Here's another shot showing the reshaping and part of a slip glued in to repair the stock, this is a definite armourer's repair.



There I more or less got it right. Boiler pressure was up

$30
What form of blackmail did you use ?
I got offered a P14 yesterday for $1800. Guess what ? I passed.
If you want an unmessed with flip sight or the original Singer one let me know, there's both in the spares box.


Not sure what photo you posted but the ones I'm looking at aren't of a No 4.

Thanks for the offer Graeme, I may leave it as it is for now until I actually get my sweaty hands on it, I suspect (hope) that it may be have been subjected to a few unofficial mods.
The application for a 'Permit to Purchase' has gone in. Now all I have to do is find $30.

Ah, now I see pictures
Very nice. I wouldn't knock it back if it came my way.
Oh, and if you're having trouble coming up with the $30 I could buy it off you for $40 and spot you the money. 33% instant profit, what could be fairer than that ?

I was about to say that you're all heart but I'm not doing overstatements tonight

Thats a bloody good buy Eoin, Congratulations.

Joe

Thanks, I reckon that it was money well spent. Now that I've got my grotties on it I find that the serial numbers match, body, bolt and forend. The bands are one piece and there are a number of parts with the Lb mark including the trigger guard, bolt and bolthead (which is a No 2). Headspace is as new; bolt will close on 0.066" but a bit of resistance can be felt on 0.067". Will not go anywhere near closing on 0.069". There is another repair on the butt stock where it looks like a dowel was glued into a knot hole.

I've haven't pulled it apart yet but it looks to be original and neglected in civilian hands rather than having suffered in service. I'm about to get to work on the bore and will put a few 'fouling removers' through it at the weekend.