| ALAN_MCKENZIE |
| (.400 member) |
| 14/07/09 10:53 PM |
Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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| ALAN_MCKENZIE |
| (.400 member) |
| 14/07/09 11:55 PM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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| rigbymauser |
| (.400 member) |
| 15/07/09 04:23 AM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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..everybody loves a Rigby
| 500Nitro |
| (.450 member) |
| 15/07/09 05:10 AM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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Very nice Alan, very nice indeed.
Thanks for posting.
| Con |
| (.333 member) |
| 15/07/09 07:55 PM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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Alan,
Can you do me a favour? Photograph of the rear and front sights ... and what contour is the barrel? Was the contour similar to a SMLE or something different?
Your action is marked similar to the one I've located and is destined for a restoration job. Mind you mine has nill engraving or other niceties.
Cheers...
Con
| ALAN_MCKENZIE |
| (.400 member) |
| 18/07/09 12:21 PM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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Con,not a problem,give me a few days .
Al
| Paul |
| (.400 member) |
| 18/07/09 10:00 PM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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Interesting rifle, Alan. I like the way the bolt handle is swept forward, for a change, and the slight bulge of the magazine. I wonder why they changed the safety - or is that the way they came early on?
- Paul
| jc5 |
| (.300 member) |
| 19/07/09 02:48 AM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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That style of safety (on the cocking piece) was introduced in 1895 for the British service Lee Metford, and remained in use on Lee Enfields until the introduction of the first SMLE (Dec. 1902). It was also used on Lee Metford and Lee Enfield cavalry carbines. Gunmakers continued to offer it on commercial Lee Speeds for a further twenty years. From 1897, however, customers could choose a sliding wrist safety instead.
It's interesting that 1) there's nothing "new" under the sun; 2) what goes around comes back in fashion someday. What I mean my these muddled cliches is that the thumb safety introduced with the SMLE (and later used on commercial Lee sporters) was not the first time such a safety had appeared on British Lees. The very first Lee Metford (the MkI, not the MkI*) introduced in 1889 had a thumb safety in the same location as what would be re-introduced on the SMLE thirteen years later. For some reason I was never too clear about, the authorities decided to remove this safety. So when the majority of MkI rifles were upgraded to the MkI*, the safety was removed, and it's hard to find a Lee Metford with this safety lever still intact. (The only one I have seen in person is on an early commercial Lee Speed action, which, being civilian, never saw an armourer's upgrade to Mk-anything).
From 1891 to 1895 (the MLM MkI* through the MkII), these rifles had no manual safety, other than the half-cock. However, it is likely (but not verifiable) that commercial sporters continued to have the thumb safety during these years). When the cocking piece safety was intrduced in 1895, gunmakers began using it on sporters, along with (a few years later) the swept forward bolt handle (inherited from the cavalry carbine design).
| Paul |
| (.400 member) |
| 19/07/09 07:57 PM |
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Re: Rigby 303 on Lee Speed action (REPEAT)
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Thanks jc5,
safety trends can be just as weird as fashions in women's clothes, sometimes. The original Mauser (and Mannlicher) wing safeties worked backwards for any right-hander wanting to disengage them quietly; the model-70-type safeties now used to replace them may work all right but the slab-sided bolt shrouds are a bad look, I reckon. CZ has messed up otherwise fine models by either having the safety work the opposite way to everyone else's or by being so clunky you'd never use them. The eventual Enfield safety was, however, a beauty IMO.
That swept-forward bolt handle looks strange but takes the knob up to the finger coming off the trigger, at least. It would also give increased grip against a sticky case.
Cheers
- Paul