World's largest Buffington sight

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butlersrangers
Posts: 9827
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2009 11:35 pm
Location: Below the Bridge, Michigan

Re: World's largest Buffington sight

Post by butlersrangers »

My No. 5 L-E carbine was made at Fazackerly, in 1947. The rear-sight is machined, (not stamped).

The bayonet came out of a work-bench drawer, that was pretty full of them, at the 'Pattern Room' - Enfield Arsenal in 1972.
Herbert Woodend, the Curator of the Pattern Room Collection, gave it to me.

The Mauser is a model 1894/14 carbine. They are very nice 'shooters'. Weight can be your friend!

BTW - In the 1960's, mint "Jungle Carbines" showed up routinely at Detroit Area military surplus stores and gun-shows.
They were usually priced at $35. The bayonets for the No. 5 were unavailable.

In those times, a really nice No. 4 Rifle - $25, a 1903 Springfield Rifle - $40-50, a very nice 1903A3, 1917 Eddystone, or K-98K would sell for $35.
The Dollar was different. Lots of Dads in my neighborhood made around $6,000 a year, supported a family of four or five, and lived in a $12,000 home.
New base-model Ford or Chevy Sedans sold for $2K to $2,500.

I remember a pallet of dingy, dusty and greasy Krag rifles showing up at the local gun-shop in the late 1960's. 'Your pick' for around $40 ..... I wasn't interested!

Zac952
Posts: 159
Joined: Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:37 am

Re: World's largest Buffington sight

Post by Zac952 »

Thanks BR for that information, as a new collector it is really interesting to me to hear about how things had used to be, prices and deals seem unbelievable until you think about how much different the dollar was at the time.

As of late I have been diving pretty deep into Lee Enfields and find them quite interesting, a No5 bayonet still seems quite rare and it is very cool how you acquired yours. The No5 bayonets I have seen for sale seem to start around $250 and up and I struggle to justify that expense on a bayonet, but I may have to just get one considering prices will likely continue rising with all the No5s RTI has imported. I would also love one day to acquire a Unissued still in wrap No4 mk2 although I don't know if I could take it out of the wrap to enjoy it or not.
That Swedish 94/14 needs a Norwegian 1912 as a friend, it would be interesting to compare those two side by side and see whether or not Sweden truly made the more advanced choice, it seems to me like it would be so, although I think the bias from me and others on this site may skew the results toward the Krag!

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