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relic lee enfield ww1

Hi I too am with both Tony's on this one as i have had first hand experience with this sort of thing and a forward cocking piece is no indication its safe only an open bolt is safe.
Andy
 
tony you are incorect
please dont skim read a post then state that i am giving bad advice.
if you pull someone up then have the facts right you are claming that i have clearly stated that if it is uncocked it is safe. then you tell me that this is dangerous assumptions. i think you are reading things into my words that are just not there.
i am still not sure that it was common practice to cary a live but uncocked weapon? i have done a little looking on line and have found nothing. where did you get this info how do you know it was common practice?
When i did weapons training we would have got a kicking if we did that and i have no reason to think it would be different then.
i am always happy to be proved wrong however.
Andy

Hi Andy,
Firstly it is not my intention to prove you wrong about anything,pull you up or 'read things' into what you typed and I did not 'skim read' your post,far from it in fact.
The facts are in your original reply to this thread,namley the part I have already quoated in my earlier reply,which is a statement that is wrong,there is no maybe,possibly,likely ect ect in your statement "if you look at the position of the cocking piece you can work out if it has a live round in the tube or not" therfore it is a statment saying that if the cocking piece is forward it is safe,so how have I read anything else into your statement?
I totaly agree with most of your points made in your original post,but most obviously not this point and in your own words,not mine,it is bad advice.

I have already given you an example of my first hand experence of this practice happening and can confirm that it was 'common practice' due to the high % of recoverd/cleared SMLE's in this condition.

All the best
Tony

 
surely it should have been checked by the seller before being sold and the appropriate paperwork attached to the relic.
in my opinion buying something like this unchecked is iresponsible. you wouldn't buy a shell or grenade that was rusted up that couldn't be stripped down and inspected to see if its empty.
Cheers, Paul.
 
Hi Paul,
Well said mate, unfortunatly most of these relics originate from the so called 'good old' days when relic collecting was accepted as harmless and not frowned upon! and I hold my hands up to supplying many hundreds of relics to the trade in the past,the only 'cop out', if you like to call it that in those days,was the disclaimer of being "sold as a curio collector item only"
I could also name one or two dealers that still trade on these terms today in London.
I can personaly vouch that some relics are still dangerous after 90+ years spent in the mud( I have witnessed a friend killed by a 'relic' in Belgium and I have lost a top of one of my fingers to a det out of a British egg grenade)
Personaly I wouldn't touch a relic of the ordnance kind with a barge pole now!
Cheers
Tony
 
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