Longbranch Enfield with ZF on buttstock

[Boerrancher]

I have spent the last few hours sorting through tons of written garbage trying to find out if the ZF stamped in the buttstock of a Longbranch rifle from Canada means that it is scrap and not safe to shoot. This is kind of important so if any of you fellas know about this please chime in. It could cost me a small fortune depending on what I find out about the supposed dreaded ZF mark. Thank you fellas in advance for your replies which could potentially save my bacon.

Best wishes,

Joe

[BruceB]

Joe;

In quite a few years in/around the Canadian Army, the ONLY mark that I saw which disqualified a firearm from regular service is a large stamped "DP" indicating "Drill Purposes", usually accompanied by broad white paint bands around the butt and fore-end. British practice seems to be the same.

Naturally, this doesn't mean that some other country hasn't got a different way of identifying out-of-spec rifles, but "ZF" means nothing to me.

[Multigunner]

ZF is the mark for a condemned rifle headed for the chopper, but the mark being on the buttstock may only mean that the buttstock was salvaged from a condemned rifle.

No way of knowing.
I would have the rifle checked out by a gunsmith who is familar with the Enfields.

[BruceB]

What organization or country uses this mark? As mentioned, I've never run across it myself.

Knowing this (now!), I certainly wouldn't buy it.

[FLINTNFIRE]

Here is a link with some info on markings http://home.earthlink.net/~smithkaia8/index.html
with this being the armorers marks info http://home.earthlink.net/~smithkaia8/id4.html
as to the original post , only a complete check of the rifle can answer that

[Boerrancher]

First off thank you fellas for all of your input. I had never heard of this nor seen it before. A good while back I traded a Long Branch NO 4 MK 1 to a friend of mine for a Northwest Trade Gun. It was the one that dad carried with him while he was just out and about. I traded it to my friend because I new he would take care of it, and because I knew it shot well, unlike the other 3 or 4 I had stacked in the closet that I had never bothered to shoot. While my friend was cleaning it up and restoring it, he found the ZF on the butt stock, and researched it. He is a bit leery of it since it was marked as condemned, so I told him I would trade him one that didn't have the ZF on it.

Dad shot this gun for years, and was a very good gunsmith. If there were ever any problems at all with the rifle he wouldn't have been using it as his walk about gun. I have even shot the thing a few times in years past as well as reloaded ammo for it. There never was a head space problem, and the receiver and locking lugs on the bolt looked factory new. I am going to continue to use the old gun as a cast boolit shooter, just as dad did. There is no reason at all why I shouldn't be able to shoot cast boolits safely out of her.

What organization or country uses this mark? As mentioned, I've never run across it myself.

Knowing this (now!), I certainly wouldn't buy it.

Bruce, this mark was used by all of the UK forces and Commonwealth forces. From everything I have read the past couple of days, it means it is not repairable at the unit level. Like the US Army the UK and Commonwealth forces have several levels of maintenance. First is Unit level, second is Organizational level, and third is Depot level. The Depot level for the UK and Commonwealth forces is done by Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corp or REME Corps. This is the maintenance level at which a weapon was determined to be repairable or sent to the chopper. If it was to be destroyed, the good parts were stripped off of it for use on other rifles, and the bad parts were destroyed by fire, melted away or burnt up.

The problem is this: Rumor has it that a few unscrupulous folks got there hands on a bunch of these Long Branch rifles marked for destruction and sold them all over the world. The problem I have with the rumor is that the ZF mark is for beyond local (unit) repair. Which means that if the trigger was malfunctioning in some way, or the rear sight was broken off, the unit armorer stamped the butt stock ZF and sent it to the next higher level of maintenance. In the UK only when a rifle part was to be destroyed it was stamped with a RE or REME on the part to be destroyed.

What this leaves us with is a few questions. First, are the Rumors about the unscrupulous individuals true? Was Canada's procedure for the handling of condemned weapons as strict as the UK's, and finally, after a full dis-assembly, and inspection of all major components, if nothing is found to be worn or damaged is it good to go, because the butt stock could have come off of a condemned rifle? I will never buy another Lee Enfield with the ZF on the butt stock, but once I get this rifle back, I will not be afraid to use it either.

Best wishes,

Joe