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Whats your take on the ey marking, and this particular rifle?
Gday mate,
There seems to be a few different camps on that marking, here's my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. I don't believe the E.Y marking is for emergency use, I believe it denotes rifles delegated for secondary line service due to bore wear or some other issue including being obsolete. Some have found E.Y on grenade conversions, again I believe that's because they pulled those rifles and converted them to that use, why mess up a perfectly good enfield when you have a serviceable beaten up one for the conversions, especially when rifle grenades weren't a huge part of british infantry doctrine more of a nice to have. So I don't believe it stands for "Extra Yield" if that was the case they would have increased the barrel proofs on those rifles, which is appears they didn't do.

So regarding this particular rifle, come the start off WWI it was already being phased out, you do see some early on in the conflict but they already had ramped up production on the MKIII for 7 years at that point. From what I've read the royal navy ended up with a bunch of MKI's which makes some sense as they were forced to hand over all their MKIIIs in 1914 and even were forced to buy arisakas at some point for secondary and reserve units. So post wwi they go into storage, Ireland gains freedom in a moment of good will Britain donates some old enfields to the cause and pull a bunch out of the naval armories (that's the rumor anyway). They don't want give brand new ones or ones that don't work, just some good enough ones to keep them happy. In my experience something that is unsuitable will be stamps U/S (unserviceable) or D.P (Drill purpose).

So from what I've seen the Emergency Use opinion comes from a drawing of markings found in a 1960s enfield book, that doesn't state the primary source that they got it from. Ian Skennerton who wrote the holy Bible on enfield rifles is of a similar opinion to what I have, that it was a marking for secondary use within service, so reserve and territorial units. He mentions that is the only reference to that marking he has found.

Apologies for the long reply, I'll dig the rifle out later and have another good look over it for you.
 
This and approximately 25k more were given to Ireland between 1920-1922 with EY or ER markings and reserialed. Be careful to run a reduced load through this.
Both replies are educational.
In trying to find 1 enfield with history, and shoot ability, seems to prove difficult lol. So much about headspace, dp, ey, and paint colors.
 
I got to agree with phantom man on this, if you're after one to shoot often and hard I'd recommend going after a mk III or later. As for markings and such feel free to message me if your looking at others and I'd be happy to help you out. This is a nice rifle that's a bit of an oddball so more collector oriented that you could shoot occasionally.

As for commercial loads, big rabbit hole on that one, I've seen some super hot stuff out of south africa and czechoslovakia. Then there corrosive military ammunition ect.

She's an interesting old girl but she's also pushing 120 years old!
 
I got to agree with phantom man on this, if you're after one to shoot often and hard I'd recommend going after a mk III or later. As for markings and such feel free to message me if your looking at others and I'd be happy to help you out. This is a nice rifle that's a bit of an oddball so more collector oriented that you could shoot occasionally.

As for commercial loads, big rabbit hole on that one, I've seen some super hot stuff out of south africa and czechoslovakia. Then there corrosive military ammunition ect.

She's an interesting old girl but she's also pushing 120 years old!
Appreciate the offer on the help. My collection involves examples of different actions. Might take you up as needed. Finding 1 shootable enfield with character proves difficult for me. They come across as complex, like a woman lol 😆
 
Hard to go wrong with a longbranch!

Being Australian I'm a little biased towards lithgows, I suspect it's the quality of the steel that made them decent as the steel factories were down the road in Newcastle.
 
Well keep it simple, buy a lithgow, if it has any type of paint on it, yellow green ect. Don't bother with it!
I looked at a lithgow once, just pics tho. Could see just a fleck of what looked like yellow paint in one of the serial numbers on the nosecap. Cautious pass. Then ive seen rumblings in forums about jjco. Makes finding a legit pu sniper a cakewalk.
 
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