No.5-Mk1.....

[walltube]

There I was, negotiating in vain with the pawn shop manager to lower his price a sou or two for a genuinely V\G condition Craftsman table saw I craved when "IT" happened.

Was is the cleavage of her two piece stock exposing a shameless S.M.L.E. ten rnd. magazine? The voluptuous funnel form of her flash hider, a sensuous turned down bolt handle exposing its'........ Oh Thou Tart!

Yeah, well..... I bought the saw and a near new 6" bench grinder after the manager told me: "O.K., come back ta'marra, Guy...I show ya da ol' gun den. But no mo droolin, o.k.? "

She came home with me. We are in love. I bought Cerrosafe from Dan to reveal her digestive tracts' condition . Her lands, her grooves: oh so deep and clear now with each stroke of the rod, an attached brush follows the anti-clockwise . The aroma of a Hoppe soaked patch fills my nares; English heather. Metal and wood sport matching numbers and ciphers. One more Sierra Nevada Pale Ale here and it's Keats I'll be spouting to Her I tell ya.

Other than a head space check, any you S.M.L.E. shooters have advice\comment or two.

Under the ever watchful eye of a concerned family,

Truly Yours,.......Walltube

[45nut]

I like giving advice sometimes,sometimes I like to run the other way heading for the door.
IN this case I heartily believe you should commence in the search for SMLE number 2,3,4,5 & 6.
Something about these rifles just screams "I am part of the history of your world" and that really appeals to me.
A fellow last week pulled me aside and told me of retireing his grandfathers SMLE,seems he had it checked over for issues by a gunsmith and was informed of it's excess headspace. He was advised to hang it on the wall.
Even when informed of the various sized boltheads to correct the problem he wanted nothing of it and offered me ten boxes of Remington 303' ammo for a paltry sum. He would not part with the rifle and I did not press him further.
I did get the ammo however and they look mighty fine on the ammo shelf. Nice to have spares when you have a crew to feed such as this...


Took that pic a couple years ago and have added 4-5 more to my collection since.

[Buckshot]

.................Walltube, is your new girlfriend for real or a 'put together'? I recall a debate several years ago on the old Shooters board, Military forum might have been, on best as is hunting rifles and the #5 ranked way up there. They were hard to find and commanded a comparatively high fee compared to one of the other top contenders, the M38 & 44 Rooskies.

Since then I think a whole 'nuther bunch had turned up and Navy and Gibbs were hawking made up ones. Interesting carbines for sure. I always enjoyed reading about the 'Wandering Zero' issue and efforts made to correct it.

Ken, that's a BUNCH o SMELLY's. There's something that strikes me as being just not quite right about having so many of those things

................Buckshot

[KCSO]

The #5's sure look neat. I had a couple of the originals in the 70's and found out that the rubber thing in the butt is NOT a recoil pad. More like a recoil accentuator. I have heard that the guns were inaccurate, but I can't say that I found them so bad. I seem to remember bouncing 1 gallon milk jugs with them at 100 yards and they would certinaly be good enough for normal hunting. Most of the ones I have seen lately have been cut down put togethers from #4 and if you have a real #5 in good shape, treasure it. A friend has a #5 that he keeps teasing me with, but I have so far resisted.

[felix]

I had a nice Jungle Carbine back in the late 50's. Paid 25 bucks or so for it, or my dad did, and I found boxer ammo from the Public Sport Shop in Philidelphia at 7.5 cents each. I guess that stuff was reloaded at least 20 times in 06 dies, with 50 cents per pound of H380, and 1 cent 30-40 Craig cupro-nickel 220's. Just maybe a coke can be hit at 80 yards with that combo. Gun was sold when I went to college.

I told my son, Nick, about that, and by golly he went to the gun show in Tulsa with some friends and picked up one. I advised him long before the 303 itself had dimensional problems and that is why the gun was sold by my dad. I had to say something, naturally, so I blamed that sale on my dad. I told him if he found a good, new barreled version, go ahead and get one. He did, and got the 308W version, put together by the India military. The guy who sold the gun to him said the gun shot straight with nato stuff, and that's all I know about the gun as of now. ... felix

[M65]

I searched for one I could afford for several years, then had three fall in my lap in about a six month period. Here is one of them, a '46 Fazakerly.
Have some cast .314's but haven't gotten around to trying them yet. Been shooting 125 Sierra's, just a devastating round out of the #5....

[Four Fingers of Death]

I bought one some years ago and when my father saw it he said that when they were in the jungle, some blanket roller (Aussie for Ordnance Corp personnel) bought these new rifles for his platoon to try. He said they didn't like them one bit as they kicked more and the recoil pad whacked the shoulder and they seemed noisy and didn't seem as accurate. When the guy came back a week or so later, he asked where the carbines were. The guys said that they threw them away and got standard rifles (No1 Mk111*s) off a few guys didn't need them anymore, i.e, dead guys. The Ordnance Officer was not impressed. Dad and his mates were looking down the barrel at some jail time, when their commanding officer intervened. His name was Gerry O'Day and the troops called him GOD. God said to the guy to clear out or he would send him into the jungle on patrol with my dad's platoon. The guy didn't hang around for long. They say it's good when you got God on your side! They called themselves the Apostles, because they followed 'God' all through New Guinea, Borneo and Timor, etc.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I am also a mad keen P14, M17, SMLE, No 4, 1911 and lever gun nut, but I have a further affliction, I'm into pe 64 Mod 70s and Ruger SAs as well. I am currently considering branching out into a Remington Pump 3006. Guns are like Chinese food, as soon as you get one, you feel like another!

When the Police uncover a cache of guns and ammo on the news on TV, do you always have more guns and ammo that there is in the cache. Do you own more ammo tins than the local army depot? Have you bought moulds in a calibre that you don't own, because you know its only a matter of time. Have you bought a rifle just because you had a good mould not being used at home. Do you have to put your rifles in the locker carefully so that the door can close. Is your gun locker bigger than your wardrobe?



Mick.

[Urny]

Hi Mick. Yep.

[M65]

You know your a redneck if you have more guns than silverware!

[Dutch4122]

Mick-

Yes, yes, yes, yes,yes, and yes!

[NVcurmudgeon]

Mick, Your list describes me right down to the ground. I am always amused by the "gun cache" or "arsenal" stories in the news. depending on the degree of liberal paranoia of the individual paper, an "arsenal" can be as few as three firearms, and be comprised of .22 RF rifles. The media seem more concerned by the "arms cache" than the illegal drugs that were the motivation for the raid. Leon Uris, a WWII Us Marine, wrote a novel, "Battle Cry," based on his service with a Marine communication company. They were issued Reising guns, selective-fire .45 ACP carbines, which were a real ***. When the USMC was able to replace the Reisings with .30 M-1 carbines, there were few Reisings to be found. The Marines had equipped themselves with M-1 Garand rifles, Thompson submachine guns, Browning automatic rifles, 1903 Springfields, etc. at the expense of US Army troops who had not watched their weapons carefully enough. Uris was one who had "been there, done that." I believe him.