"Once in a lifetime Enfield" Indeed.

[Racing]

Gents.
I can understand as much that some might take to yelling bloody murder but the facts are the facts. Reality in short.

https://i.postimg.cc/J0hpFpdb/16.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/7ZSnKvYF/17.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Rhrc7XxS/18.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Dy6X020y/19.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/TwfSMpqG/21.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/brvBrWBB/22.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/wT7rpKJt/23.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Qd7nFpfh/25.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/0QktXhPy/26.jpg

No. Your eyes ain´t fooling you. That is a brand new P53 Enfield made in 1863, and yes there´s a backstory to it...
Yes. They DO exist!

So. 1861. The shots fired at Fort Sumter got to start the US civil war. LOADS of European arms were bought to arm the conflict that came to rage until 1865.
Ergo the P53 "export model" was born, still in ,577" caliber though.

As history has it, as the US civil war is raging, there´s an uprising in Warzaw in Poland and these men need to get armed too. So all in all 900 Tower marked Enfields are bought to still this craving.. packed on a ship and set to sea.
As the ship is about to enter the Baltic sea it is however stopped by Swedish customs, and them 900 rifles are impounded. BIG debacle of course..

No matter. Them Enfields are impounded, and as yrs go by they´re finally sold off mainly to Swedish sharp shooters corps by the founder of one of the major newspapers here in Sweden.
Save one.

..which is headed for the Swedish regiment I-15 in Borås. So. This sole Enfield is placed on the wall of the officers mess at this place.. and when a new mess hall is built in 1914 this rifle comes along.
So.
There it hangs, until one day the regiment is to be dismantled.. in 2012. By this time the rifle has spent almost 100 years on THAT specific wall alone.

One of the full time officers buys it and brings it home.

A few yrs pass, and this is where we pick up cause good friend Bengt gets called up by this former mentioned officers and asked if he´d have any interest in "that old Enfield", which he of course has.

The irony here is that Bengt has spent 37yrs of his life as a Swedish customs officer, too. Previous to that tho an officer at I-15.

So Bengt picks it up and all is golden right? Yeah well, just about. At the club it´s me and Bengt that are in charge of anything blackpowder so to state that we know each other is.. yeah well..

All of sudden he calls me up one day and brings said Enfield to mention stating that "you know it brother, this is really more you than me".
So we do a barter. He gets my Gallager carbine..

https://i.postimg.cc/Vv3WwhQM/27.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/yNVX795f/28.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/d1f8Rf0X/29.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/2jPtrcx2/30.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/K8mJ8d3r/31.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/jS8QdCbt/32.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/XNQvP5cj/35.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/dVdwJZdT/37.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Dyxb1DYc/36.jpg

These are known to be a bit picky as far as fudder, so i talked it all over with Brett at "Paper cartridges" who´s a real authority on the matter.
He told that for accuracy i should really start with the so called Hay bullet and be real anal about casting plugs to fill out the base cavity.

As we cut our own molds, one Hay mold coming up..

But yes.
This is what they looked like off the show room floor. New.

I´m at a loss for words. Really i am..