[coop]

HI Do not fire a deactivated rifle, and there is no DP marks on the rifle,they are still looking for the rear handguard.

A good habit to get into is to remove the woodwork from your newly acquired rifle and check for holes in the barrel.
This is not my rifle however I would like to bring this to the attention of any potential hidden traps with shooting a newly acquired rifle,always check the rifle over before using it.

The reason i placed this on the board was not to BAG ANYONE OUT, but to highlight the problems that may arise with collecting and shooting military rifles and to bring this to attention of new rifle collectors and shooters,and what pitfalls could be lurking around the corner if you do not inspect your firearm thoroughly.

 

[Son]

Obviously the exploding coachwood theory has some basis in fact!

Jeez, mate! I hope that wasn't fired by someone who should have known better. Always strip and check them out completely before heading off to the range.

 

[para]

I just can't understand how you would not see the hole on the inside? Anyone who has used a gas operated rifle would know what i mean. you can see the gas escape hole in the barrel where ever it is located. That looks like a 5 or 6 mm hole!! How did the user miss that!!!
You cant's save everyone eh!
Any injury to the user be sides a heap of pride?
Any wood would explode using that method of destruction.
Cheers
NED

 

[eleanori]

What a waste of a nice bit of coachwood.

I've heard of a hand guard being blown off a L.E. Cav carbine in similar circimstances recently.

 

[CroppyBoy1798]

I'm not familiar with the various forms of deactivation, all I know is that my de-ac wont even chamber a round, let alone fire it! But a single hole drilled in the top of the barrell and hidden under the rear handguard?! What sort of a clown would have done that?! Its hardly adequate to render the weapon beyond use and as seen in the pics has led to another clown o) causing him or herself some grief and a whore of a fright I'd imagine!

 

[03man]

Clown A was a mean sob and was 'after' clown B?

 

[Riceone]

Several months back I got hold of a T99, saw something that did not look right about the rear tang. I too it out of the wood and there was a hole bored in the bottom of the chamber through the drain hole in the bottom of the stock. I would have shot it had I not noted the something about the bottom tang. I drilled another in the side of the chamber and inserted a 1/8 inch pin extending down in the chamber so a round cannot be chambered. riceone

 

[GunnerSam]

A friend bought a DP No.4 rifle for parts, price was $25 for these at the time, and when he dropped a cleaning rod down the bore to see how far the chamber plug went it popped right out. There'd been only a light tack weld to hold the plug in place.
That rifle could have been fired , with no more than replacing the firing pin if that.
The Chamber was scarred by the plug having been driven home before the tack weld, but otherwise the rifle was in good condition.

I'm pretty sure the poorly machined 1944 Lithgow action I have mentioned before came from a reactivated drill rifle. The bore ahead of the chamber was far too eaten away for normal corrosive primer residue and the metal was still there only in a spongy form that had the shape of the rifling intact. That spongy metal pretty much fell apart when I went to clean what had looked like simple caked fouling. Its a mystery as to what ate up the bore, possibly acid soldering flux from a chamber insert being soldered in place long ago then removed later on.
That action has a bolt head that had a coil spring in place of the V spring for the extractor, I later learned that this was a common mod for drill rifles that had chamber plugs. The barrel was not drilled on this one.

The receiver seems to be strong, and the non matching bolt locks up tight.
The locking surfaces though look as if they may have had metal added by welding and then recut. Hard to tell for sure though.

While reactivating drill rifles would not be a big business with any great profit motivation, as a fellow once said about hijacking trucks "40,000 pounds of anything is a fortune".
A load of hundreds of otherwise unsaleable drill rifles at say 10 bucks apiece or less in volumn at scrap metal prices plus two-five bucks worth of parts and labor in some third world pesthole where 25 cents a day was a fortune, and an unscrupulous dealer would have a lot of nice looking junk that they could sell at 1000% profit margin.
Crooks aren't smart to begin with, and an honest dealer can have some very dishonest people working for him without realizing it.

 

[plonker]

Just a guess, but I suspect someone re-stocked a DP rifle there.

Usually the big hole is drilled thru the entire wood & barrel top to bottom.
The "DP" is stamped and a big colored band painted round the wood.

The ones I saw in Brit service were not pluuged at all, just old, worn out rifles drilled & marked prominently.

 

[edlee]

I have 2 SMLE's with holes in the chambers. When I got them about 15 years ago they also had broken off firing pins and the firing pin holes in the bolt heads were welded over. 1 of them is a 1915 Lithgow with the volley sights etc. They also had red bands painted around the butts and the forends had been dipped in yellow paint about 6ins. there are no DP or any other out of place markings.

 

[John Sukey In Memoriam]

once saw a SMLE at the local gun store with a skeletonized bolt. (SKN) They pulled it from the rack after I let them know.

 

[Englishman_ca In Memoriam]

Deactivated?

If it could chamber and fire a round, it aint deactivated is it?

I think that 'Booby trapped' is an appropriate term.

 

[krinko]

"Obviously the exploding coachwood theory has some basis in fact!"

Told you so.
-----krinko

 

[edlee]

If it could chamber and fire a round, it aint deactivated is it?

I think the idea was that you could still use drill rounds in it but not fire live rounds because of the short firing pin which was for cadet use. BUT if you change the bolt and clean off the paint so nobody knows what is lurking under the rear handguard, you get exploding coachwood!
I still have a SKN action No 4 with a full length firing pin that I dont want to cut off just in case I need it for a spare.

 

[JollyGreenSlugg]

Hey Ed, does the 15 Lithgow need a holiday? A Lee-Enfield collector in the Riverina (cough) is looking for a military-demilled SMLE to cover another aspect of his collection.

Hey, no harm in asking! Oh yeah, I'll be in your neck of the woods in Feb, any chance of a visit?

Cheers,
Matt

 

[coop]

Deactivated

If it could chamber and fire a round, it aint deactivated is it?

I think the idea was that you could still use drill rounds in it but not fire live rounds because of the short firing pin which was for cadet use. BUT if you change the bolt and clean off the paint so nobody knows what is lurking under the rear handguard, you get exploding coachwood!
I still have a SKN action No 4 with a full length firing pin that I dont want to cut off just in case I need it for a spare.

____________________________________________________________________________
HI ED
The firing pin was broken and then replaced by the fellow who fired the rifle,he carried out visual look up the barrel but did not see the hole as the rear handguard was still attached to the rifle.

 

[coop]

Deactivated

I just can't understand how you would not see the hole on the inside? Anyone who has used a gas operated rifle would know what i mean. you can see the gas escape hole in the barrel where ever it is located. That looks like a 5 or 6 mm hole!! How did the user miss that!!!
You cant's save everyone eh!
Any injury to the user be sides a heap of pride?
Any wood would explode using that method of destruction.
Cheers
NED

____________________________________________________________________________

HI Ned
The bloke did not get injured and that is the main thing, i only saw the after affects.

 

[para]

absoluetely coop, that is the main thing
Cheers
NED

 

[RobD]

The other dangerous thing I've seen a few times in the UK (on rifles for DP rather than deacts, I suspect) is a thin hacksaw-cut across the knox form into the chamber (of Martinis). This is all too easily soldered or welded up, and it's anyone's guess how strong the repairs are.

 

[pugs1970]

The other dangerous thing I've seen a few times in the UK (on rifles for DP rather than deacts, I suspect) is a thin hacksaw-cut across the knox form into the chamber (of Martinis). This is all too easily soldered or welded up, and it's anyone's guess how strong the repairs are.

My gun dealer has an ishy 303 that has a thin saw cut across the knocks form , nobody knew until i pulled of the wood to have a look (stickynose) at the markings ..
It was a bit of a roughy anyway so now its a parts gun and the reciever has gone to god.


pugs