SMLE drill rifle

[blixen01]

I was in a shop that sells furniture and junk from India and came across this. $125.
153647153650

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Ummm....depending on your point of view the comment would be "wonderful!" or "ghastly!" What are your plans for it? The nose cap, at least, appears to be of Indian manufacture as their version has the squared front sight ears instead of rounded like the British-made rifles.

[leebuilder]

Thats neat. Never seen one of those. Nice wall hanger.
Be well

[leebuilder]

Thats neat. Never seen one of those. Nice wall hanger.
Be well

[Hardcast416taylor]

If the magazine is usable in a regular SMLE you could recover about half of the inital cost by selling it.Robert

[blixen01]

I didn't buy it. I just thought it was an interesting oddity.

Btw. Even the clip is cast out of iron and apiece with the trigger guide.

[Rustyleee]

You could always clean it up and make a lamp out of it. I always thought those looked pretty nice.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I was in a shop that sells furniture and junk from India and came across this. $125.
153647153650

If it came from India it needn't have been just a toy. Villagers, very poor in cash terms and sometimes living in game reserves or difficult to distinguish from criminals, sometimes used them to deter dacoits, or bandits.

Genuine rifles stamped DP, for drill purpose, are a mixed bag. Some were rendered unfireable, but many weren't. When rifles were relegated to drill purpose while an issue item, they were usually condemned as unsafe or excessively eroded in the bore. When a model was superseded, and only the best were required as reserve weapons, the DO designation could be applied to perfectly good ones. I have seen a DP Long Lee-Enfield shoot about as well as anyone expects from a military rifle.

[richhodg66]

I teach junior ROTC and while our drill rifles now are dummies, for along time the programs used demilled 1903A3s I'm told. I cringe when I think of the waste.

[Multigunner]

This appears to be a purpose made bayonet fencing rifle.
Nothing on this sort of trainer can be used on a real SMLE, the magazine is a dummy part of the trigger guard.
They used dummy bayonets of several types including simple spring loaded ball tipped prods for thrusting and dull metal blade types for parrying. A real bayonet might be used for thrusting into dummies.
Some of these had a spring loaded prod built into the for end.

[nekshot]

is that really worth that much?

[Multigunner]

The Bayonet trainers have value to some who collect them, the condition of this one would determine the value.
Its a wall hanger decorator item for anyone other than a collector who's looking for one of this configuration to fill out his collection.
I wouldn't be interested in it at all but some might jump on it.

[Multigunner]

PS
I vaguely remember that the US Army obtained some non firing training rifles of this configuration for use at Fort Dix. I think they got them from Canada.

[Multigunner]

Bumping to add link
(I can't edit posts for some reason)

British Lee-Enfield SMLE No.1 Dummy Practice Rifle

With the shortage of SMLE’s critical by 1916 the British Army instead relied upon the No.1 Practice Rifle for the early stages of training. This would acclimatise recruits with the weight and feel of the rifle as well as being used during bayonet training.

The rifles were made of two pieces of wood with a cast iron front sight mount which also included the bayonet lug. The No.1 also had a simulated trigger and trigger guard and a magazine (made of a stone weight looped by cast iron to add weight. Some rifles had the rear elevating sight while other more simple dummy rifles did not.

http://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/59332696370/british-lee-enfield-smle-no1-dummy-practice

[Adam Helmer]

I think $125 is way too much for a $5.00 boat anchor for my 18-foot Old Town Canoe.

As for Drill Purpose Rifles, my research disclosed BOTH defective rifles and Issue arms were so marked "DP" to fill the need for drill rifles early in WWII. It seems the Brits reduced their Forces to a low level pre-1939 and the need for DP arms expanded more than unserviceable arms could fill. Therefore, my several "DP" marked Enfields are all within serviceable specs for good reason.

Adam

[Der Gebirgsjager]

This is all true, but I have seen some DP marked rifles that it was impossible to determine why they had been so marked, and they were fully functional and safe to shoot. The ones that I've examined did all seem to have worn bores. The British had a grenade with a rod on the end that the soldier stuck down the muzzle and fired, and I believe that the rod whipping around on its way out didn't do the rifling a lot of good. In fact, I have two No.1 Mk. III*s that are not marked DP that are smooth bores the last 6 inches of the bore. Both date from early WW I, and sometime later they started wrapping the forestocks with wire to prevent the wood from splitting.

[Mk42gunner]

I teach junior ROTC and while our drill rifles now are dummies, for along time the programs used demilled 1903A3s I'm told. I cringe when I think of the waste.

Your post made me think of the torch cut M-1 Garands we carried in boot camp. Makes me wonder just how many M-1's were ruined for "Drill Purpose rifles." At the time the Navy had three Recruit Training Centers and you know every Recruit needed his own ruined rifle.

Robert