Ideas?

[Stephan]

A friend bought a No.5 carbine at an auction the other day...missing the magazine but otherwise intact. A burgler had broken into the house or some-such and stole the magazines for all the guns...which were not locked up with the guns.

Anyhow..I've not seen this carbine yet...but he called me last night and said his new carbine would not chamber a .303!!...I had him try a .308..and it wouldn't chamber a .308 either...

I told him to scrub the chamber well and see if the gun has a chunk of cartridge case stuck in the chamber...and have not heard back just how that went(he was quite pissed last I talked to him).

So just what else might a jungle carbine be chambered for?

Any other ideas for why a .303 would lack about a 1/2" of chambering a round?

Thanx Stevie

[Guamsst]

7.62X25 with a chamber insert is the only thing I can think of but that should be extremely obvious. Could be a british dewat/demil. If so, it won't be repairable.

[mike24d20]

try a 7.62 x 39, If rifle came from a china controlled area , it might just have been rechambered into such a item.

[John Sukey]

Just another thought. Did the friend use a live round or a fired case from another .303 rifle?? If the second, that would be one reason.

[Stephan]

Friend reported back....something was wrong with the extractor....and now it will chamber a .308!!!.....I'm not completely sold on the 7.62 conversion....

I told him not to shoot it until we check it out further....if it's a 7.62 Nato conversion....would about have to be Indian or aftermarket(Santa Fe?)

Will just have to look at it to determine if it's indeed a legit No.5 or a No.4 conversion of some sort. I own a BSA JC..and am familiar with the differences from a No.4 rifle...it's a mystery for sure.

[JB White]

Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing your friend bought a Gibbs hysterical refake. 2A rifles reconfigured to a 'jungle carbine' and were sold as No7's which they were in no way shape or form. No7's and Cno7's were .22's. They reckoned since it ever-so-slightly resembled the Aussie No6 in appearance they would call theirs a No7 without having done any further research. US dealers were actually selling them as "Australian No5's" since Gibbs literature alluded to that.
If it's marked as an RFI 2A or 2A1 and has a flash hider then you know for sure. It will either be a halfway decent truck gun or a total POS.

[John Sukey]

Got one of those shortened "tanker" SMLE's from Gibbs. Only took a couple of rounds for the nosecap and part of the forend to depart from the rest of the rifle. They didn't shorten the forend, rather thery cut out a section, aand then doweled the two remaining pieces together with something like library paste.!

You are gonna have some real fun finding a .308 magazine!

[Stephan]

Going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing your friend bought a Gibbs hysterical refake. 2A rifles reconfigured to a 'jungle carbine' and were sold as No7's which they were in no way shape or form. No7's and Cno7's were .22's. They reckoned since it ever-so-slightly resembled the Aussie No6 in appearance they would call theirs a No7 without having done any further research. US dealers were actually selling them as "Australian No5's" since Gibbs literature alluded to that.
If it's marked as an RFI 2A or 2A1 and has a flash hider then you know for sure. It will either be a halfway decent truck gun or a total POS.

The limb you went out on is the right limb....it's a sawed off RFI rifle. Has a decent looking copy of the jungle carbine flash-hider. Can barely see the RFI 195? date on the buttsocket...has RFI on the rear sight...which is on the barrel...it's a sawed of 2A or whatever the Indians called the 7.62 No.1 Mk.III looking rifles.

I hope to help my pal find a mag....he's a good guy and has no idea he over-paid for the carbine....

[Hal O'Peridol]

Sacro has correct magazines. Getting them to actually ship the correct part is another matter.

[John Sukey]

Ah yess, Sarco years ago I ordered a Remington 513T barrel from them. I recieved a paper tube with no barrel. Well things do happen!
They sent a replacement. Now here is where it gets interesting. A few years later, I ordered another 513T barrel from them, The SAME thing happened.

Again, I ordered a carrying handle for a Lewis gun from them. Its on back order! Nope, never recieved it! found one elsewhere.

Another good one. Had a S&W revolver that some idiot had rechambered from .38S&W to .38 special. (Not a good idea) So I ordered a .38spl cylinder and guess what? It was ANOTHER reamed .38S&W cylinder! Sent it back.