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Cut Down Lee Enfield

Article about: I am still 100% certain that this was a RE modified weapon. The fact that the picture is taken in the Hill 60 museum where mining was at its peak would back this up. Sappers cut them down be

  1. #161
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    When cutting the barrel.. Would it not be plausible that the rifling may be askew and the trajectory be sent
    in a unknown direction or fouled if stopped from the exit... This would be dangerous and reckless IMO G
    I'd rather be A "RaD Man than a Mad Man "

  2. #162

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    I imagine that the rifling would be of small benefit for such a shortened barrel weapon. I wouldn't expect much distance accuracy, in any case. From the overall length of the thing, it would-if anything-be a close quarters thing. Assuming it was an actual used weapon, that is.
    William

    "Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."

  3. #163

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    One possible reason for a dearth of other countries' rifles receiving similar treatment in WW1 would be the widespread use of small 'pocket pistols' by the French and German armies, a type that had no direct official issue equivalent for the British and Commonwealth forces. The French also had the already very short Berthier carbines available.

  4. #164

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    That's exactly what it is... an oddity. No one can dispute where it is from. No one can prove (or disprove) that it is a genuine WW1 era piece which has been modified by a soldier either. It could just as easily be something done immediate post war and used as a poachers gun - or something else. There is simply no proof to say either way what it was used for, and that is the problem!

  5. #165
    CBH
    CBH is offline
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    The only thing I can add is , this GUN a some point was made to fill a need . We can never truly know what that was or when it was done . But let me add if i were living in a trench with all the dangers involved maybe a cutdown rifle tucked under your blanket at night might be the difference between life or death , at least fill the need till you find a pistol .

  6. #166

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    It would have more knock down power than your average run of the mill WWI era pinfire contraption, if nothing else...
    William

    "Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."

  7. #167

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    Whatever the details, why's and wherefores it cannot be denied that it could spoil your whole week should you be unlucky enough to be on the wrong end of it.....The real question in this case is what end is the wrong end???
    'I do not think we can hope for any better thing now.
    We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far.
    It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. SCOTT.
    Last Entry - For God's sake look after our people.'

    In memory of Capt. Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans. South Pole Expedition, 30th March 1912.

  8. #168

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    Hi Danny, I remember seeing one of these a long time ago and was told that the guy,s who did the tunnels used them, they could'nt take the normal rifle down as they were to long for the job.
    Pistols were not issued to tunnelers ( miners ) so this was the only way they could carry a weapon.
    Hope this helps. Dave.

  9. #169

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    I remember reading the stories of how the miners would tunnel to meet and stop the other side from completing their own mines and of the desperate hand to hand battles that would ensue far below the earth-sometimes quite suddenly and by surprise when the other side would suddenly come boiling through a tunnel face like ants. It always gave me the shivers to envision it.
    William

    "Much that once was, is lost. For none now live who remember it."

  10. #170

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    Found this on another forum!.....
    "Cut-down SMLEs were used as firing mechanisms in locally-produced mortars (eg the 2" trench mortar) and projectors. Another use that might explain the "tunneller weapon" story is that pistols and cut-down rifles were also used as firing initiators in "flash boxes" - that is to say a box containing loose cordite or powder mixed in with the bundled ends of black powder burning fuzes. The rifle/pistol would have a blank or de-bulleted round chambered, and be fired by lanyard. Flash boxes were often used as an auxiliary method of initiating an explosive charge alongside or in place of electrical systems. Hence such cut-down rifles might well have been present in tunnelling operations as initiators, and have had the "weapon" story added on later."

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