Kevin, over at the Brown Valley, inspired me with a recent post.

I went to a gun show in Dallas Sunday with a few friends and ended up pickin' up a new toy.







It started when I went to a gun show in Austin a while back, maybe a month and a half ago, and saw this rifle for sale. It's a .303 Enfield #4, Mark 1, made in Canada by Long Branch in 1944. Was interested, but didn't buy it then, trying to save some money. Then I read Kevin's post about his rifles, and the seed was planted. I ran into the guy iat Market Hall Sunday afternoon, and I found this little beauty again. She was talkin' to me.

After walking around the hall, it ended up being a choice between this and a cherry Mosin Nagant; pre WW1 (pre Russian Revolution), rifle made in Finland. That guy really didn't know what he had or how rare it is. Wanted to sell me the rifle and a bag of nice ammo for about $450. I thought about it hard as I walked through the show, fondling things here and there, and eventually decided to get the Enfield. $300 later, I'm walking away with it. As I do, two different guys, one after the other, walk up with big grins on their faces to ask me if I'm selling it.

One was a very excited Brit, who examined it and noticed that the bolt was not original. I didn't even know to look for numbers on the bolt. I checked it and sure enough the serial numbers were not the same. Still, he liked the rifle a lot, but warned me to check the head spacing before I shoot it. I guess the Brits (or Canadians) were not as good as our folks at making the parts truly interchangeable. He also told me to avoid old service .303 ammo, due to much of it being corrosive. I wish I'd gotten that guys email, because he seemed cool and very knowledgeable about these little babies.

Some of his comments concerned me, but I think it could easily be that bolts and rifles got mixed up as soldiers got together in the field to clean their guns. I know that's true with American guns in WW2, which is why you find so few Garands or M-1 carbines with all matching numbers and parts. I went over to another table and picked out a faded looking sling to go with it, and my friends and I walked out the door. When we got back to Gatesville, my buddy handed me a hollow point .303 round and I ran it through the action, smooth as silk. Ejected fine, so I don't think there will be an issue.

For whatever it's worth, the old guy I bought it from told me that the Long Branch rifles were thought to be the best Enfields, very accurate due to being made with an extra groove of rifling in the barrel or something. He said this particular rifle was very accurate, "more accurate than you or I could shoot it". Don't know. I'm glad I picked it up anyway. I'll clean it up in the next week or so and oil the stock, and order some good .303 rounds, and then we'll see how accurate it is.

Before we drove a few of the guys back to Arlington and Ft. Worth, I drove us over to Sal's and we had good vittles. A Stromboli, a great salad, and garlic bread. Good stuff. Oh, and on the way back from Dallas, after dropping the last dude in Gatesville, I stopped in at the American Legion hall in Temple and was there to see my buddy David's team lose the pool tourney in the final round. Very depressing end to a very long day for them. They'd been there all day, since 8 AM, and had been winning till the evening. Not sure who lost it for them or what happened. I'll find out this week.

Well, hope your weekend was fun. See ya later.

Update: Just ordered some .303 from the Sportsman's guide. 174 gr. FMJ, 5 boxes of 20 rds. for as little over $60. I'll clean her up and we'll see how they perform in this old bird.