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Hi Guys looking for info on a Jungle carbine I've got.

It's a No.5 mk1, .303, no factory marks except for the FR 1964 RFI. No date of manufacture.
just a plain serial number, 00xxx, RFI 800 yard sight.

Any ideas

RFI is the Royal (Ordnance) Factory Ishapore. I was not aware that they made No5s.

FR - Factory Refurbished at Ishapore in 1964, thus suggesting an Indian Army weapon?

Pictures...?

As far as I'm aware India only made the SMLE and the 7.62 2A and 2A1 variants and only used surplus No4's.

My first thought is if it does have Indian markings then it's possibly a Gibbs Rifle or Navy Arms conversion.

Edit: RFI = Rifle Factory, Ishapore + thread on a similar rifle to yours, Andy. http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=729728 looks like it could be an RFI refurb after all.

It is an Ishapore refurb.

Some No5s were refurbished at Ishapore, I have one in my collection.

They usually have the ubiquitous "Ishy screw" through the stock.

The original manufacture marking are usually scrubbed off.

Fine shooting firearms.

Just need the pictures now.

dromia wrote:It is an Ishapore refurb.

Some No5s were refurbished at Ishapore, I have one in my collection.

They usually have the ubiquitous "Ishy screw" through the stock.

The original manufacture marking are usually scrubbed off.

Fine shooting firearms.

Just need the pictures now.

Working on the pictures; and yes it has the screw.

In addition to the lateral screw through the forend (some say the screw was for rifle grenade strengthening, on the No4 at least), it will probably have a small circular cartouche stamped into the left hand side of the butt...never have seen one clear enough to read!

Ishapore refurbished and re-stocked thousands of No4's and No5's, this process continued into the 1970's.

RFI refurb No5's are quite common in the west these days, both as live and deactivated rifles. I guess someone must have imported a batch back in the 90's.

Cheers, John.

dromia wrote:It is an Ishapore refurb.

Some No5s were refurbished at Ishapore, I have one in my collection.

They usually have the ubiquitous "Ishy screw" through the stock.

The original manufacture marking are usually scrubbed off.

Fine shooting firearms.

Just need the pictures now.

Here goes:



















Maybe more to come once I recharge camera batteries.

I've tried to unmuddle your codes.

All you need to do in photobucket is copy the address from the img bar and paste the address here.

No need to use the img or url buttons in the post box here as the code is already in the photobucket img address.

dromia wrote:I've tried to unmuddle your codes.

All you need to do in photobucket is copy the address from the img bar and paste the address here.

No need to use the img or url buttons in the post box here as the code is already in the photobucket img address.

Cheers,

Computer thingies are not really my cup of tea, I'm a Big Hammer Mechanic at heart!