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Went to the Pasadena gunshow the other day

Of course I am an impulse buyer...I already planned to buy an Ishapore Enfield rifle...I made it literally 10 feet in the door before I spotted this one.

I did check the bore and check over the overall appearance of the rifle, the bore is crazy immaculate! I mean I have seen bad bores and I expected this one to be pitted..not so..it is like a mirror...probably spent most of its life in a crate full of cosmoline!

I got it home and found a bunch of sites on how to take it down..I got it taken apart and this thing is swimming in cosmoline, so the next project is getting the stock cleaned up..and un-gooping it. Since I am a function over form I am also probably going to get the entire thing bead blasted then guncoat in flat black all the metal to ensure its protected and in good shape..others cold blued theirs but it just didn't look right, I plan to redo the stock in a rich cherry color and protect with matte polyurethane to protect it

I also bought a 140 round battle pack of mulsurp ammo (that my son immediately opened!!! uggh!) so I can test her out once I get her cleaned up.

The 1st name that popped into my mind when I started thinking of a name for her was Amanda...and my wife instantly burst my bubble by tossing out "Amanda HugginKiss" grrrr! [always gotta rain on my parade...but at least this time I didn't have to ask for forgiveness instead of beg for permission) [get it, A man to hug and kiss...grrrr]

Here is a picture of her..the stock is horrible, its almost black because of all the cosmoline! I will try to get pics and stuff of the cleanup/restore but like I said I am a function over form kinda guy..I plan on using her instead of propping her up in a corner and going ooooh and ahhhh!

Oh yah..the Ishapore Enfield 2A is chambered in .308 NATO instead of .303 British

Plus is my 1st boltgun ever!





This is the "parts pile" after the dishwasher and the industrial purple degreaser...as you can see the wood is no longer almost completely black..in fact its rather nice and brown and very dry...there are still a few spots that have cosmoline but acetone should clean those up, the barrel is almost completely cosmoline free and after a few good squirts of brake parts cleaner and a toothbrush it will be good to go

I put all the small parts in baggies because I have a bad tendency to either misplace small stuff or end up putting back together something and having extra parts, NOT a good thing with a firearm, so I bagged up all the parts as I disassembled the rifle and cleaned the larger chunks in the dishwasher, I will hit the screws and stuff with brake cleaner but all in all its much cleaner than before..I did go over the metal with some remoil for protection till I can sandblast it so it wont rust...that brown is some left over cosmoline

I still plan on citri-stripping the stock to almost bleach white before I go back over it with the walnut dye, this way its not over dark and the color is more consistent


This is the finished stock, my camera isn't the greatest and the color doesn't do the wood justice, I put a healthy coat of walnut wood dye in the wood and let it dry, then I put 3 coats of Minwax polyurethane satin (fast dry in the spraypaint can) to coat it, I'm more of a function over form kinda guy, not interested in collectability, if I buy a gun I plan on using it, and trust me, if they would have had polyurethane back then when they 1st made it thats what they would have used instead of Tung oil, this stuff is tough as nails!

I just opened the box with the Manganese Phosphate Parkerizing Solution
I will soon have this puppy stripped, de-greased and ready to parkerize.

Progressing nicely


Ok peeps!

Finally got this monster finished!


Fully stripped, and reparkerized magazine, inside and out


This is the receiver minus the wood, my son is holding it for everyone to see


Couple shots after, my camera sucks so the images really don't do the wood justice


Here I am checking the slide, after parkerizing the entire bolt and receiver it definitely tightened the action up alot, I put some Gun Butter grease on it, it will probably take about 100 cycles to really get it smooth again, I have been wiping it down to get the loosened parkerizing particles out of the grease, its still smooth but tighter than it was before


This is my rifle..there are many like it..but this one is MINE!


This is Amanda...respect her, love her, if you dont, don't worry about running, you will just die tired

All in all the total job wasn't too bad..I will say if you can get a sand blasting booth GET ONE, I have to clean aluminum oxide sand blasting media from all over in my garage, uggh. The chicken feeder tray I bought at Tractor Supply worked PERFECTLY, I put it on my kitchen stove and the rifle just dropped right in with no problems, I think it has a chrome chamber/bore because the stupid rubber barrel plug blew out while the rifle was parkerizing, but when I looked there was no parkerizing in the chamber/bore...I missed a few small parts, but everything I did get parkerized beautifully...very very simple..just strip to bare metal, degrease with acetone, then re-degrease with non-chlorinated brake cleaner, then toss in the almost boiling parkerizing solution, when the metal quits bubbling, put it out, rinse it off, dry it off, then slather with your favorite gun oil...done.

I think it turned out VERY nice..in fact with all the garbage spraypaint stuff gone you can see the stamped crowns, serial numbers, and alot that was masked by whatever the heck that goop was they sprayed on it, I have to get me a sling.

Range reports to follow just gotta find the time, then I will punch some holes in some paper.

Let me know what you guys think, imagine a beat up old piece of junk Mosin would look like!

Good job!

I haven't tackled mine yet. On mine, the black isn't cosmolene, but rather the heavy black paint put on at the factory. Some have found good parkerizing under the black lacquer.

Nice.

I own a couple of Ish's & 4 .303 Enfields myself--(2 #4's (1 Standard, 1 Sporter) #1 SMLE, #3 Jungle Carbine) all of them shooters. I have redone the stocks on my #4's and scoped my Sporter out, have ended the life of many hogs with her.

I do not know how long you have been cruffling, but I wanted to go ahead and warn you--some folks forget this little fact. Before you go shoot her, take notice.

7.62 NATO and .308 Remington are not the SAME! Below is an article written by the good guys at SurplusRifle.com, They can explain it better than I can.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting200 ... /index.asp

If you cannot find any 7.62 NATO ammo, PM me, I can hook you up with some of my stash for a cut rate.

When I inquired of Federal, they told me that they had a 170gr, low recoil, Fusion load loaded to lower pressures.

Also, Winchester Q3130.

Ranger+P+ wrote:Nice.

I own a couple of Ish's & 4 .303 Enfields myself--(2 #4's (1 Standard, 1 Sporter) #1 SMLE, #3 Jungle Carbine) all of them shooters. I have redone the stocks on my #4's and scoped my Sporter out, have ended the life of many hogs with her.

I do not know how long you have been cruffling, but I wanted to go ahead and warn you--some folks forget this little fact. Before you go shoot her, take notice.

7.62 NATO and .308 Remington are not the SAME! Below is an article written by the good guys at SurplusRifle.com, They can explain it better than I can.

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting200 ... /index.asp

If you cannot find any 7.62 NATO ammo, PM me, I can hook you up with some of my stash for a cut rate.

Oh yah..I have read and re-read about the chamber tolerances (will fail on standard .308 headspace gauges, but pass on 7.62 field gauges) of the Ishapores..I plan to ONLY shoot .7.62 NATO brass and reloads...I am definitely listening on the deal for 7.62 NATO though!

Also I know that civilian rounds can have MUCH higher case pressures than NATO and the cases are thinner..but if reloading me and my buddy (who owns a FAL) plan to only load to approx 80% of max (subtracting .5 grains for NATO brass) perhaps not loading them as hot could prevent premature failure on standard civilian .308 Winchester brass...but for the mean time I plan to only use NATO milsurp rounds and brass

Hey check it out!!

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewto ... 37#p433937" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently when the guys made the Ishapore it is stronger than you might think!

I also really questioned this because everywhere I read about the "dangers" of shooting the Ishy it was just heresay..noone has ever seen one blown up...so with this thread above...I now feel very comfortable shooting .308 Winchester in my Ishy...I just have about 600 rounds of South African Milsurp I have to burn thru 1st

Nice buy and nice clean up. I just acquired a CETME and am on the hunt for some ammo myself. I bought some steel cased Monarch from Acadamy just to see if it will work. I also bought some Federal brass. I know the Federal will shoot fine, but I will see about the Monarch. If the Monarch shoots I'm going to buy all they have. Just curious what the battle pack you bought at the gun show set you back?

RECIT wrote:Nice buy and nice clean up. I just acquired a CETME and am on the hunt for some ammo myself. I bought some steel cased Monarch from Acadamy just to see if it will work. I also bought some Federal brass. I know the Federal will shoot fine, but I will see about the Monarch. If the Monarch shoots I'm going to buy all they have. Just curious what the battle pack you bought at the gun show set you back?

I bought 4 packs of 180 South African (boxer primed) for $50 a piece and $35 shipping from a buddy of mine who was cleaning out his gun closet and came across em (he resently sold all his .308 so I got em)

I also got some 10 rounds stippers for standard NATO ammo, fits perfectly in the feed paws on the reciever..no more single loading rounds in the mag for me

Question for you Enfield guys...

A friend of mine from my Bible study has a British made (Maltby) No.4 Mk I in extremely good condition, chambered in .303 British. The wood is in very good shape. The round count must not be that high because the barrel is in very good condition, and it comes with the original leather sling and bayonet with scabbard.

The receiver is stamped "1944" and serial number is BO 188XX. I haven't looked at it up close in a while, but he's going to bring it to church on Sunday for me to take home with me so I can take some pictures of it to post it for selling.

The problem is, I have no idea of what such a rifle would be worth. I much more beat up looking Enfields selling for $175-$275 online, but they are in nowhere near the condition this one is. What do you guys think a really cherry No.4 Mk I would go for these days?

Here's what I did to mine.

The Annoyed Man wrote:The problem is, I have no idea of what such a rifle would be worth. I much more beat up looking Enfields selling for $175-$275 online, but they are in nowhere near the condition this one is. What do you guys think a really cherry No.4 Mk I would go for these days?

It's hard to say. I have a gorgeous No 4 Mk 1 that was refinished by a gunsmith 20 +/- years ago. I'm quite fond of it but I suspect it would be worth more to a collector had it not been refinished.

subsonic wrote:

The Annoyed Man wrote:The problem is, I have no idea of what such a rifle would be worth. I much more beat up looking Enfields selling for $175-$275 online, but they are in nowhere near the condition this one is. What do you guys think a really cherry No.4 Mk I would go for these days?

It's hard to say. I have a gorgeous No 4 Mk 1 that was refinished by a gunsmith 20 +/- years ago. I'm quite fond of it but I suspect it would be worth more to a collector had it not been refinished.

My friend's has the original, un-refinished wood, which still bears some armory markings stamped into it, but the wood is much newer looking than the rifles pictured here, and it is much lighter in color (if I remember correctly).

The Annoyed Man wrote:...and it comes with the original leather sling and bayonet with scabbard.

The receiver is stamped "1944" and serial number is BO 188XX.

The original sling would be canvas, not leather.

Maltby produced the most of any British factory, and 1944 was their biggest year, so you won't get any value for rarity. Wartime production is always worth a bonus, though. If it's truly an original rifle in that condition, and not FTR'd, refinished, or restored, I'd say he should start the bidding at $200, hope for $250, and be thrilled if someone gave $300 for it.

All that is without actually seeing the rifle, mind you.

Another variable is the bayonet, because they vary so much and can be collectible in themselves. Which bayonet? Blade or spike? If it's a spike, the model number and type of scabbard could make it worth anywhere between $5 and $250 all on its own.

Weg wrote:

IMG_2312.JPG

Here's what I did to mine.

So, you butchered a hundred bucks' worth of furniture to avoid paying $79 for an aftermarket synthetic stock?

KBCraig wrote:

Weg wrote:

IMG_2312.JPG

Here's what I did to mine.

So, you butchered a hundred bucks' worth of furniture to avoid paying $79 for an aftermarket synthetic stock?

Well some people still like wood...to each his own

Mike1951 wrote:Good job!

I haven't tackled mine yet. On mine, the black isn't cosmolene, but rather the heavy black paint put on at the factory. Some have found good parkerizing under the black lacquer.

No the black is the cosmo soaked into the stock...I too had that heavy black paint junk on the metal...and once I was able to get it off there was hardly any finish underneath...this is why I decided to do a full re-parkerize of the rifle