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Was watching the movie a bit last night,, again.. and it reminded me of a rifle I have had for nearly 10 years. I know I have mentioned it here before, but not sure if I ever posted pics or told how I came by it.
I was toodling around in the old Skagit Arms store, now moved into a much larger building, and looking at the used gun racks on the floor when my old peepers caught a glint of light off this old Enfield rifle. Hmmm says I.
I picked up this rifle and knew it was an Enfield, a sporter version, maybe commercial. The only real company markings on it were LSA Co., on the stock socket which didnt immediately register with me. I was familiar with BSA and others but not this one. I liked the rifle right off, bore was good, obviously a very old rifle, in .303 British of course.
So I racked it and went home to do some research, low and behold LSA was London Small Arms, a contemporary of BSA but didnt last near as long or make near as many rifles, but this was one of theirs, a commercially produced Enfield sporter built on the Long Lee action. A somewhat rare beast.
Now my interest was piqued. So I thought, if that thing is still there tomorrow, I will buy it. The price tag had said about $580 IIRC.
Next day I dashed up there and it was still there. I picked it up again and it began to speak to me or was it the guy standing behind me looking over my shoulder, an older gent with a gleam in his eye and sweat on his upper lip. He looked at me, then the rifle as if he was mentally suggesting I put that rifle down and get the Hell out of the store, like right now! With that look I knew. If I put the rifle down, it was his.
I hastily marched over to the counter and threw down the dollars, the gentleman left the store, shaking a little I suspect.
I then came into contact with a fellow doing much research for a book on rifles of this type, Lee Speeds, BSA, LSA all of this style of sporters, that were fairly common in the early part of the last century, especially in places like India and Africa where the British still maintained a large presence.
He asked for pictures and had me fill out a form for his research and said I had a very nice honest commercial LSA sporter, worth probably 3-4 times what I had paid for it.
I have shot this rifle more than a few times, filed in the express V sight, and with a really good bore for rifle over 100 years old it shoots excellent.
So here is a picture of my Ghost and the Darkness rifle, it very closely resembles Val Kilmers rifle used to "sort out" the lions holding up the building of the bridge at Tsavo.
It quite literally oozes history, smells of old tobacco and billiards rooms with rifle racks. Love the smell of it.
I am loading up a box of rounds for it for a near future shoot, its been too long.
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I was toodling around in the old Skagit Arms store, now moved into a much larger building, and looking at the used gun racks on the floor when my old peepers caught a glint of light off this old Enfield rifle. Hmmm says I.
I picked up this rifle and knew it was an Enfield, a sporter version, maybe commercial. The only real company markings on it were LSA Co., on the stock socket which didnt immediately register with me. I was familiar with BSA and others but not this one. I liked the rifle right off, bore was good, obviously a very old rifle, in .303 British of course.
So I racked it and went home to do some research, low and behold LSA was London Small Arms, a contemporary of BSA but didnt last near as long or make near as many rifles, but this was one of theirs, a commercially produced Enfield sporter built on the Long Lee action. A somewhat rare beast.
Now my interest was piqued. So I thought, if that thing is still there tomorrow, I will buy it. The price tag had said about $580 IIRC.
Next day I dashed up there and it was still there. I picked it up again and it began to speak to me or was it the guy standing behind me looking over my shoulder, an older gent with a gleam in his eye and sweat on his upper lip. He looked at me, then the rifle as if he was mentally suggesting I put that rifle down and get the Hell out of the store, like right now! With that look I knew. If I put the rifle down, it was his.
I hastily marched over to the counter and threw down the dollars, the gentleman left the store, shaking a little I suspect.
I then came into contact with a fellow doing much research for a book on rifles of this type, Lee Speeds, BSA, LSA all of this style of sporters, that were fairly common in the early part of the last century, especially in places like India and Africa where the British still maintained a large presence.
He asked for pictures and had me fill out a form for his research and said I had a very nice honest commercial LSA sporter, worth probably 3-4 times what I had paid for it.
I have shot this rifle more than a few times, filed in the express V sight, and with a really good bore for rifle over 100 years old it shoots excellent.
So here is a picture of my Ghost and the Darkness rifle, it very closely resembles Val Kilmers rifle used to "sort out" the lions holding up the building of the bridge at Tsavo.
It quite literally oozes history, smells of old tobacco and billiards rooms with rifle racks. Love the smell of it.
I am loading up a box of rounds for it for a near future shoot, its been too long.
