Enfield Action Cover

[Devious6]

Another member suggested this would be a great forum to get a reading on an action cover I purchased. It came from the IMA-USA collection that is being sold individually and they are listed as WWI vintage. As you'll see, there are some questions about it...so I come to the experts. Real? WWI or post-WWI? Thanks in advance for your assistance..I'm a newbie here. Here are the first 3 - I'll post 3 more in a follow on.

And the last 3 pictures. Sorry for the size but I'm just getting to know my way around this forum and it's requirements.

[Krithia]

It look real, but is not WW1. The makers stamp is purely ficticious I'm afraid, and is not of 1914 vintage.

[Devious6]

I was afraid of that. Well, I've already sent IMA-USA an email requesting an exchange. Unfortunately, I've had it longer than their normal return policy allows. We'll see how interested they are in customer service, I guess.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Andrew Upton]

The date is itself a big give away that all is not right - these covers didn't come in to existence until 1915, so impossible to see one dated 1914. The particular style of lettering with various other dates is a sign to run for the hills when offered similar items of supposedly WW1 webbing, kit, etc.

[REME245]

If IMA were in this country they would be in serious trouble with some of the fantasy kit and made up weapons they sale.

Were smooth popppers used in WW1 as they are mainly associated with WW2 Canadian production?

[auchonvillerssomme]

Look at this lot and laugh or cry!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Original-British-WWI-SMLE-Cover-Dated-Regimentally-Marked-/290648629218?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43ac021fe2

[SommeTrenches]

The date is itself a big give away that all is not right - these covers didn't come in to existence until 1915, so impossible to see one dated 1914.

Didn't the introduction of the cover coincide with the change on the triggerguard of the SMLE rifle from the threaded swivel boss to the wire loop?

I don't think you can even thread the tie of the action cover through the boss, unless it's the wire loop type. I could be mistaken though.

[Andrew Upton]

Didn't the introduction of the cover coincide with the change on the triggerguard of the SMLE rifle from the threaded swivel boss to the wire loop?

I don't think you can even thread the tie of the action cover through the boss, unless it's the wire loop type. I could be mistaken though.

Sort of - old post on the subject:

All but the very last production Mk. I SMLE's had the magazine linked to the trigger guard by a single link, just as the Long Lees did. The picture below show a 1904 BSA Mk. I, with its unmodified Mk. I magazine linked to the trigger guard. This feature was continued in production until late 1905, when the link and link loop were omitted, and a trigger guard with the sling swivel attachment was provided. The LoC reference is 13509 (paragraphs dated 30 September 1905). This is a few months earlier than the LoC entry for the SMLE Mk. I*, LoC 13577, earliest date listed 27 March 1906.

The swivel lugs were omitted and a wire loop "for the attachment of the breech cover" added in the introduction of the SMLE Mk. III*, LoC entry 17622, dated 2 January 1916. However, the introduction of the SMLE Mk. III* was considered temporary at the time. The first paragraph of the entry reads "In future manufacture, rifles of the above mentioned pattern MAY [emphasis added] embody any of the following modifications: ...", this followed by a list of mods including the change from swivel lugs to wire loop. These changes were not mandatory, but were wartime expedient only.

It's also worth noting that List of Changes entry dates are only approximately related to what was actually done in the real world. Many times, the entry documents something that had already been done, sometimes years before. In the case of the 1916 trigger guard change, existing stocks of the old style guards would have been used up, perhaps long after the January 1916 date. Picture a load of new parts being dumped into a parts bin on top of the older ones, and the early parts surfacing at random and being used later on, as with the 1917 dated SMLE Grant showed us above.

[SommeTrenches]

I see, so the action cover was introduced then when the change was authorized (but production of MK III*s could have been using older style parts until the supply ran out).

[John Thorne]

I see, so the action cover was introduced then when the change was authorized (but production of MK III*s could have been using older style parts until the supply ran out).

Interestingly, the Cover, breech, Mark I was introduced a bit earlier than the III* mods, by LoC entry 17368, dated 24th June 1915. In part, it reads "The cover is attached to the rifle by means of the lace as follows -

Rifles, short, M.L.E.: To the guard sling swivel, or through the swivel screw holes in the swivel lugs on the trigger guard."

The LoC entry 17622 quoted above, introducing the Mk. III* SMLE, has this entry about the trigger guard mods: "The swivel lugs being omitted from the underside of the front end of the guard, and a wire loop being fitted on the left side of that position for the attachment of the breech cover."

[SommeTrenches]

I did not know that, thanks for the additional information. I had assumed that the threaded swivel lug was too small to fit the lace for the cover, but there it is right in the LOC.