Yesterday's Weapons Forums

Heres a couple of pics of a 1918 Mk III I cleaned up and put an antique oil finish on for a friend around 16 years ago or more.
Its in very good mechanical condition with a very good to excellent bore. All numbered parts match and the stock is also numbered to the receiver.

The rifle has a matching numbered magazine as well but the one in it for the photo is one of my spares. He forgot the mag when he brought it over.


I accidently dropped a British coin in the disc hole while checking the diameter. Couldn't get it out without scarring the wood so we left it in. Looks better that way anyhow.

thats a beauty , tell us more about her , she looks to be a great rifle , congrats .....................BTW , that rifle , if in fact a 1918 will be a mkIII* , subtle diferance and well worth researching , you will enjoy this one a lot shes a classic ,

.................................................................i got one with just such an acoutrament - its correct vintage and i like it just fine

i can understand ther keyboard deal - my fat fingers are always hitting wrong keys and i often dont catch the misstakes , but i trust yall to see thru them , i just wasnt sure in this case

i like the color , its very much like the ones i have that werent stripped so you got it right

the bore is smack dab on and sounds like the headspace is good to go , id love to see the coin if you could post the photo , BTW the coin in mine is in my mkV trials -so correct early 20s vintage ,

The only scarrs I removed that I now wish I'd left intact were very deep claw marks on the fore end near the bolt handle. We later realized these were from the hands of a previous user executing the "mad minute".
One of the last troopers to use this rifle must have had hands like a gorilla, with very thick tough fingernails.
Many of the smaller markings still visible match up with the fingernails of a hand gripping the fore end tightly.
They are small segments like this (

The surface of the wood had apparently already been softened by years of oil soaking when these scratches and dings happened.

Many of the rifles that showed up in stores here were mechanically very good but looked like they'd spent years in a garage grease pit.