Need an Ishapor expert..........!

[3006guns]

Quite a few years ago, one of the major surplus dealers was offering N0.1 MKIII* Enfields listed as "very good" for $39.50 each if purchased in lots of five rifles. A friend and I went for it and made the order. I had first choice as I only wanted one. When they arrived I carefully inspected each and finally selected one with an absolutely gorgeous bore, metal, etc. The stock is dark (almost black), smooth, oiled with some handling/rack marks. There are no rebuild/refurbish marks that I can see.

I just shot it yesterday with cast and 9 gr. of Trail Boss. Accurate....very.

Now, as carefully as I looked, something escaped me until recently. Stamped on the wrist reinforce is "RFI" (Ishapor) and the date of manufacture.....1970! Just exactly how long did Ishapor produce these rifles (in .303)? Mine sure does look very close to new!

[smlekid]

I've seen on another forum a 1986 made 303
have a look at this site lots of very good info here http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?164380-Are-the-Ishapore-No-1Mk-3-.303s-in-the-1960s

[3006guns]

Thank you!

[Multigunner]

.303 remained the standard police and game department issue so they built a few .303 MkIII rifles long after they'd adopted the 7.62 as the standard military cartridge.

They also continued to use .303 wirewrap rifles for grenade launching since they still had huge stocks of the proper .303 blanks on hand.

[3006guns]

Again, years ago, I saw one of the wire wrapped rifles at a friends house. It just looked like a much abused No.1 MKIII* until he pointed out a few things. First of all, the stamping on the wrist reinforce was "ER" (Edward Rexus) with a turn of the century date. Second, it had the magazine cut off and third, the rear sight had IVORY knobs on the slide. Turns out it was a No.1 MKI......first one I'd ever seen. He sold it before I could get my grubby hands on it!