Any Army QMs or Armourers here, have a question about the No4mk2 enfields

harmoniums

I've got a few of those so called "Irish Contract" No4s.
The story goes that they were made in 54-55 for export to the Republic and only a few ever got shipped over (confusing reasoning given on why they never arrived en-mass, some say the British were concerned that they may fall into IRA hands etc, others that the order was cancelled etc....)

Anyway, I've got a few of these rifles, one of which seems to have an armorers repair in the butt, possibly indicating that it was issued.

If I was to take a few pictures and give the serial number would it be possible to see if it ever served with the PDF/RDF/FCA ?

punchdrunk

my Dad's a bit of an expert on the No4mk2,as he was issued with one back in the day,owns a deactivated one and has just about every book published on the Lee enfield story

put some pics up and i'll send him this way

Manic Moran

PF309348 to PF359347 were the actual Irish contract for No4Mk2, but most (all?) were never delivered.

NTM

xflyer

I remember discussing this on another thread or on a gun forum. Essentially there is a myth pepetrated by one author that thousands of rifles were never delivered because of the 'political situation'. Well there was no political situation in the fifties that would have precluded the delivery of anything British. So the non delivery may be more to do with economic reasons or the fact that the FN was about to enter service with NATO and the British. The Irish army wouldn't need 50,000 rifles anyway. But several thousand were definitely delivered and used by the army and FCA for a long time afterward.

Some surplus .303s were sold to Canada in the nineties. These would be real Irish army rifles. Some were brand new unwrapped. I myself saw some in the armoury in Griffith barracks. I even remember seeing one being unwrapped and cleaned. It turned out like those desirable 'blond' .303s you see in gun forums.

The rest of the Lee Enfields were unceremoniously dumped in the Irish sea.

Savage93

xflyer wrote: »

I remember discussing this on another thread or on a gun forum. Essentially there is a myth pepetrated by one author that thousands of rifles were never delivered because of the 'political situation'. Well there was no political situation in the fifties that would have precluded the delivery of anything British. So the non delivery may be more to do with economic reasons or the fact that the FN was about to enter service with NATO and the British. The Irish army wouldn't need 50,000 rifles anyway. But several thousand were definitely delivered and used by the army and FCA for a long time afterward.

Some surplus .303s were sold to Canada in the nineties. These would be real Irish army rifles. Some were brand new unwrapped. I myself saw some in the armoury in Griffith barracks. I even remember seeing one being unwrapped and cleaned. It turned out like those desirable 'blond' .303s you see in gun forums.

The rest of the Lee Enfields were unceremoniously dumped in the Irish sea.

What a waste, lovely rifle, I've fires 1000s of rounds in my FCA days from this