Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Savage No.4 MkI

Any idea how many of these were produced? Other tid bits of info?
http://www.allaboutenfields.co.nz/no4s/no4-mki/

Savage made over 1 million during WW2
as well as thompson SMG, 50 cal & 30 cal machine guns.
A good site to search for info, is this one
http://www.milsurps.com/
Do a search for savage & No4 Mk1 & Mk1*
Cheers Graham

Rick,

You've got a very nice looking No.4 there. I posted a 3 part thread on these a while back

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...e_other_Savage_303_photo_hea#Post7748207

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._The_other_Savage_303_photo_#Post7748320

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth..._The_other_Savage_303_photo_#Post7748344

If you look at these two sites you'll find about 80%+ of the world's living Enfield experts. Good people on both sites.

http://www.milsurps.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72

http://forums.gunboards.com/forumdisplay.php?55-The-Lee-Enfield-Forum

There should be a date stamp either on the butt socket, left side.

Your sling is on backwards. Fit it so that the open side of the sling hooks face out, away from the woodwork. Otherwise the ends of the hooks will chew up the wood.

I'm sure you know that .303 British and .303 Savage are not the same, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it.

If you rifle doesn't have a date we should be able to make a good guess from the serial number.

If yours has a two-groove barrel don't let anyone give you any crap about it being inferior to the other barrels. The two-groove barrels were just as accurate.

Lee-Enfields were arguably the best bolt-action battle rifles of both wars. They are great fun to shoot. The only downside to owning a Lee-Enfield is they are like 99's, one is not enough and you can't possibly collect one of each model. (Well, if you were born rich and started very young, maybe)

Thanks CHB. Looks like I'm fish'in in the right pond.
I Missed your previous post and am digesting it now.
No stock date stamp that I can see, has a few other cartouche's I'll get pics and post. Sling is marked 1944.
Funny thing, from a 99 perspective the war years are a void. From a war perspective the other years don't matter.

Rick,
I've sent you a PM

I own two Enfields: a Mk. 1No. III, and a No. 4 Mk 1. I love them both, though neither is a Savage. I find this forum to be great one also. http://www.enfield-rifles.com/

Sayak,

Is your No.1 a MkIII or MkIII*? What is the date and maker?Savage did not make No.1s. In fact no No.1s were made in North America.

It's a MkIII, made by Lithgow in '41. It was sported when I bought it years ago, and it is till sported. It makes a great all-around hunting rifle. Love the butter smooth action.

If it's a '41 Lithgow it's a MkIII*. The difference was the MkIII had a magazine cutoff, a sliding plate on the right side of the receiver that covered the rounds in the magazine and converted it to a temporary single shot. The MkIII also had what were called volley sights, an aperture mounted on the safety lever pivot and a dial plate and pointer on the left side of the forestock graduated from about 1600 to 2800 yards. These two features were deleted around 1916 as a war-time expedient to speed up rifle production.

Because .303 British was the military issue round for Canada there were tons of Lee-Enfields that got spoterized and used in Canada. Just like what happened to 30-06 Springfields in the states. .303B will certainly take any animal in North America.

As far as I'm concerned Enfields, Mausers and Springfields are the only military bolt actions that are suitable for conversion to hunting rifles. They are the only ones with a safety that can be easily manipulated with one hand.

Good hunting,

Well, learned something new! I know just enough about Enfields to get me in trouble.
The no. 4 I have is also sported, and the barrel was cut off. It had been poorly painted and the stock was butchered too. The action and bore were good (2 groove), so I put it into (gasp) an ATI stock after carefully repainting the steel. It has become a truck gun for me, and the Mk III* gets babied as the classy old girl she is.
My dad bought an Enfield in 1965 from Montgomery Ward for $10... through the U.S.Mail!

If the barrel was cut there's no way to reasonably restore it to military configuration so the ATI stock makes a lot of sense, especially in your part of the world. Despite a lot of comments to the contrary the two groove barrels were just as accurate as the five and six groove ones. If they weren't the military wouldn't have approved the use of them

I have heard/read that a significant portion of these rifles ended up on the bottom of the Atlantic courtesy of the Nazi U-Boats, because the period that they were shipped coincided with the height of the U-Boats' success. Once the British sig-int people got the Enigma machine codes figured out, the U-Boats' success rates went way down.

Jeff

Not. The U.S. version of the Enfield, commonly called the M1917, comes with a very nice thumb safety. Since its also a pretty heavy duty action its a good candidate for belted magnums and other 35+ caliber conversions.

I love the P17, and it does have a great safety. Maybe CHB was including this in the Enfields?

Southern WI,

No doubt in your Enfield learning process you've seen that Savage made the bayonets to go with their rifles - and are so marked. If you don't have one you'll need one to complete your piece. Coincidentally, one of the moderators on Gunboards had some to sell. Maybe still avail:
http://forums.gunboards.com/showthr...s-pouches-tools-ETC&highlight=savage

Skidrow,

I agree, I didn't single out the P14 or M17 considering them lumped in with the Enfields. The P14/M17 action is probably the most robust of the group, the Mauser easiest to convert to a sporter.

Just a bit of pendantry, there is no such thing as a P17. The .303 version of the rifle was the Pattern '14 or P14 the 30-06 version was the Model of 1917 or M17.

Sorta kinda understand that but the P14/M17 is a completely different rifle from the many Marks of the Lee Enfield that the British Commonwealth issued.