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the Daily hi thread
Anyone shooting vintage rifles?
- Thread starter Triggermortls
- Start date
Pukka Bundook
Super member
Robin,
As this barrel needed a chop and had already had a chop. It got a home made sight.
Not at all correct, but neither is the fasceted grip!
Just used what was cobblimg about!
No pretentions to be anything. Other than a working gun...
Yours is a lovely example!
Pleased the mould is working for some of you lads back home!!
Tac,
Very bonny rifles!
As this barrel needed a chop and had already had a chop. It got a home made sight.
Not at all correct, but neither is the fasceted grip!
Just used what was cobblimg about!
No pretentions to be anything. Other than a working gun...
Yours is a lovely example!
Pleased the mould is working for some of you lads back home!!
Tac,
Very bonny rifles!
Enfield 1903 SHTLEIII .22LR with very rare Parker-Hiscock magazine and Central micrometer aperture sight. I plink with this from time to time.
Belgian Snider .577 carbine. I sold this a while back, But yeah it was fun to shoot with a 550gr Minie.
Polish M44 Nagant, 1952. With a home grown scout mount and Bushnell TRS25 red dot (no permanent change to the rifle). I took it away and shot some feral pigs with it. A 180gr SPBT gets their attention.
Lithgow 1917 SMLE .303. Sold a few months go. I used it very rarely, mostly for hitting steel or bursting plastic bottles full of water.
My Slazenger Model 12 .22LR, built by Lithgow at the SAF.
According to Lithgow museum, my Model 12 left the factory on the 16th of January, 1950.
This is dad and his dog and some bunnies shot beforehand.
As you can see there's a footbridge in the background.
The rifle now wears a 2-7x35 Vortex Diamondback and is in regular use on the bunnies.
Belgian Snider .577 carbine. I sold this a while back, But yeah it was fun to shoot with a 550gr Minie.
Polish M44 Nagant, 1952. With a home grown scout mount and Bushnell TRS25 red dot (no permanent change to the rifle). I took it away and shot some feral pigs with it. A 180gr SPBT gets their attention.
Lithgow 1917 SMLE .303. Sold a few months go. I used it very rarely, mostly for hitting steel or bursting plastic bottles full of water.
My Slazenger Model 12 .22LR, built by Lithgow at the SAF.
According to Lithgow museum, my Model 12 left the factory on the 16th of January, 1950.
This is dad and his dog and some bunnies shot beforehand.
As you can see there's a footbridge in the background.
The rifle now wears a 2-7x35 Vortex Diamondback and is in regular use on the bunnies.
tac
Super member
Here's my dad's Walther Model 2 from around the early '30's. He used it on Irish bunnies at the time. I learnred to shoot with it, fist as a single-shot bolt-action, then with the five round mag, and then as a semi-auto. The x2.5 no-name scope was put on it when he bought it.Enfield 1903 SHTLEIII .22LR with very rare Parker-Hiscock magazine and Central micrometer aperture sight. I plink with this from time to time.
Belgian Snider .577 carbine. I sold this a while back, But yeah it was fun to shoot with a 550gr Minie.
Polish M44 Nagant, 1952. With a home grown scout mount and Bushnell TRS25 red dot (no permanent change to the rifle). I took it away and shot some feral pigs with it. A 180gr SPBT gets their attention.
Lithgow 1917 SMLE .303. Sold a few months go. I used it very rarely, mostly for hitting steel or bursting plastic bottles full of water.
My Slazenger Model 12 .22LR, built by Lithgow at the SAF.
According to Lithgow museum, my Model 12 left the factory on the 16th of January, 1950.
This is dad and his dog and some bunnies shot beforehand.
As you can see there's a footbridge in the background.
The rifle now wears a 2-7x35 Vortex Diamondback and is in regular use on the bunnies.
tac
Super member
Ta.
The Short rifle was a birthday gift from a dear pla, who decamped to France ahead of BREXIT. He knew I'd been jonesing after it for years, bless 'im!
Ready for next Thursday - your bullets, and Rob's loading system -
Sarge
Member Extraordinaire
I need this.Enfield 1903 SHTLEIII .22LR with very rare Parker-Hiscock magazine and Central micrometer aperture sight. I plink with this from time to time.
Please send to [address sent in PM]
Lovely rifle and pretty rare, especially with the PH magazine.
How does it feed from that magazine? I have heard they can be a bit temperamental. I've seen then come up at online auctions once or twice, but never seen one in the flesh, or even held one.
Yeah it's a bit notchy.
The magazine comprises a standard mag body and a fairly normal looking follower spring.
The bottom left thumbpiece functions as a takedown lever of sorts and also to relieve the spring tension on the .22 follower so you can just drop rounds in.
There are several parts, pins and springs and you can see the hand fitting that's gone in to it.
Fully loaded with five 90's vintage Winchester Expediters, which possibly come close to the power of a MkVII issue ball cartridge.
Ready to slam one in to battery! Note the pin that pushes the round forward, in turn being pushed by the specially modified rimfire bolt.
A round in the chamber - further pushing on the bolt (which needs to be spirited) pushes the tapered follower out of the way and the huge extractor (why don't all rimfires have extractors like this?!) takes hold of the rim. When the bolt is opened, again, sharply, the follower pops back up acting as the world's Largest Rimfire Ejector!
So there you have it - no doubt a costly and complicated thing to produce and easily damaged too I imagine, and probably why they weren't made for long.
It all functions just fine as long as you slam that bolt home like you've got Zulus incoming and is a good bit of fun to use.
The magazine comprises a standard mag body and a fairly normal looking follower spring.
The bottom left thumbpiece functions as a takedown lever of sorts and also to relieve the spring tension on the .22 follower so you can just drop rounds in.
There are several parts, pins and springs and you can see the hand fitting that's gone in to it.
Fully loaded with five 90's vintage Winchester Expediters, which possibly come close to the power of a MkVII issue ball cartridge.
Ready to slam one in to battery! Note the pin that pushes the round forward, in turn being pushed by the specially modified rimfire bolt.
A round in the chamber - further pushing on the bolt (which needs to be spirited) pushes the tapered follower out of the way and the huge extractor (why don't all rimfires have extractors like this?!) takes hold of the rim. When the bolt is opened, again, sharply, the follower pops back up acting as the world's Largest Rimfire Ejector!
So there you have it - no doubt a costly and complicated thing to produce and easily damaged too I imagine, and probably why they weren't made for long.
It all functions just fine as long as you slam that bolt home like you've got Zulus incoming and is a good bit of fun to use.
Pukka Bundook
Super member
Tac,
Nope, that's Martyn's mould. Mine is the flat nose job!
Nope, that's Martyn's mould. Mine is the flat nose job!
Sarge
Member Extraordinaire
Thank you very much for sharing.Yeah it's a bit notchy.
The magazine comprises a standard mag body and a fairly normal looking follower spring.
The bottom left thumbpiece functions as a takedown lever of sorts and also to relieve the spring tension on the .22 follower so you can just drop rounds in.
There are several parts, pins and springs and you can see the hand fitting that's gone in to it.
Fully loaded with five 90's vintage Winchester Expediters, which possibly come close to the power of a MkVII issue ball cartridge.
Ready to slam one in to battery! Note the pin that pushes the round forward, in turn being pushed by the specially modified rimfire bolt.
A round in the chamber - further pushing on the bolt (which needs to be spirited) pushes the tapered follower out of the way and the huge extractor (why don't all rimfires have extractors like this?!) takes hold of the rim. When the bolt is opened, again, sharply, the follower pops back up acting as the world's Largest Rimfire Ejector!
So there you have it - no doubt a costly and complicated thing to produce and easily damaged too I imagine, and probably why they weren't made for long.
It all functions just fine as long as you slam that bolt home like you've got Zulus incoming and is a good bit of fun to use.
I have a collection of 22 trainers, from a 1870s Lebel to several Enfields, including a short barrelled SLR, even an aiming tube for the MLE or CLLE (Note to self: which I need to buy so I can test it), but the Parker Hesketh is the holy grail. The last time I saw a magazine only come up for auction (c2018?) I had to stop watching to go back to work and the price at the time was £1500 and still going.
According to folk lore, the Parker Hesketh magazines were so expensive to make, need to be tweaked to work or be so unreliable that they were scrapped almost as soon as they were introduced, follow-up shots were not the issue for a training rifle. Hence, the scarcity I guess.
The Enfield No7 with its BSA Sportsman Five magazine that is inserted from the top is complicated enough, but that's simple compared to this.
Not in the uk
Sarge
Member Extraordinaire
Good choices.
I guy in my club has a straight pull version of both M1s (Garand and Carbine) and an SLR/L1A1.
Not full auto, or even semi, but great fun examples of classics.
There was even a SLR/FAL match at Bisley a few months back, and it'll hopefully be run annually.
I heard someone is trying to make a 22lr Bren. I'm looking at selling a kidney and my first born, for the cause.
HarrySmithsonian
Member Extraordinaire
I am now seriously thinking it's time for a 'bucket list' trip to USA. There are some groups offering the USA shooting trips I am thinking of contacting. We have got some distant relatives over there, Arkansas and Charlotte but not in any contact.
tac
Super member
Ah. Do you sell them, then? I'm always open to novelty when it comes to shooting my older rifles.
tac
Super member
Be quick, before we get put on the list of 'unfavourable nations'.
tac
Super member
That's what I bought for £165 to take to Gunnar Abrams in Oregon about ten years ago - for his dad. Gunnar is the prez of the Arisaka collectors assoc. of the USA, and has maybe a couple of hundred of 'em. However, like they say, they all look the same to me.........
Frederick Williams
Proactive member
The Parker Hale Whitworth variants are not to be derided at all. They shoot very well, sometimes better than the originals. It's just a shame that UK laws dictate you need a vacant slot on an FAC to purchase one.
This is my D series. Marked with the Whitworth wheatsheaf, and the Whitworth Company Limited. The woodwork is quite worn on the exterior, but the metal work and bore are quite good, and it shoots well. Although I have taken it off my certificate to replace it with something else, which I will come to later. The ram rod is a replacement. The foresight is slightly bigger than a P53 or P62 barleycorn, and has a windage adjustable blade. Otherwise it would accept a P53 bayonet.
I am informed, from a very reliable source. That Bill Curtis identified several 'D' series Whitworth, as volunteer versions or even prototypes, of the Pattern 1862. I have seen one other D series, and Auction details of a further one, which was numbered very close to mine. All three closely resemble pattern 62's.
tac
Super member
I don't worry myself too much about the externals, TBH, so long as the bore is good, that's fine by me. ANY Whitworth rifle is worth having, IMO, even my poor old frawk, much derided back in the day by a representative of an august organisation, who, whilst claiming ownership of six such rifles, advised me to 'push the boat out, and not to bother with the cheap fakes from Birmingham'. I was put off joining - forever. I've since bought a second, earlier serial than the first, #888, which I had bought in 1986. This one, #420, dates from 1980, and was virtually unfired when I bought it three years back. The seller - the second owner - had bought it some eight years back, but he had never fired it.
I first started shooting a Lyman 535gr multi-groove bullet in# 420, with this set of holes being the first attempt at 100m with just 70gr of 3Fg and a couple of card wads.
They set up nicely into hexagonal form - hence the clear six-sided holes in the paper.... Here's a recovered example -
I've since located a Pedersoli mould back in Canada, and the guy selling it sent me an example made with it to try a fit. It was a perfect fit, and I had it off him.
This is where it goes -
Pedersoli's moulds are said to be of odd-sizes in my experience, and while you could shoot an undersize bullet, and rely on a hefty charge to upset it, an oversize bullet is as much use as tits on a toad - and at almost £220 here - with handles - that's a lot of money to find out that it doesn't fit. I've yet to see a sizing die for a 1:20 twisted hexagonal bullet, but I dare say that there might be such a thing.
As an aside, this is me shooting Bill Maple's lovely P-H back in 1982 at Rose Ranges in Berlin/Zehlendorf - home of the 1936 Olympics shooting competitions. The photo was taken by Dr David Schiller and used in his book 'Schwartzpulver Digest' from Motorbook Verlag. I recommend it to anybody who speaks German.
So here is #420 in all its glory - 'fresh out of the box' and forty-five years old - I really don't give a hoot if it's a frawk or not, I love it.
Apologies to anybody not that interested in old bundooks, but it's a fact that once you get an old fart like me started, it's pretty darn near impossible to stop us.
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zogg364
Member Extraordinaire
This is a good little gun for short range bunnies, 1936 so knocking on a bit now and a great deal of fun…
Frederick Williams
Proactive member
That is one very nice rifle. Well done.
I have a Pedersolli .451 cylindrical, grease groove bullet mould. Number and weight just escapes me at the moment. But the bullet I use almost exclusively, is a hexagonal bullet that I cast from one of Peter Starley's excellent moulds. Patched with 0.002" Velum, it makes .452" and is a comfortable fit in both my bores.
