Euroarms Enfield vs. Armisport Enfield

[mboyd]

Hi All......well I own two repro 3 banded Enfields, one from Euroarms and then one I bought later(about 10 years ago) from Armisport. Of the two, which is the better candidate for defarbing. Thanks in advance. Mike Boyd

[fahnenschmied]

Re: Euroarms Enfield vs. Armisport Enfield

It is hard to say - but the Euroarms has a few advantages - it has a more appropriate rear sight, and the stock is not usually ground down too thin immediately in front of the lock panels, looking at it from the top. Nor are they made overly thin behind the rear barrel band. To its detriment, the barrel is made with a straight taper, resulting in it being much thicker in the middle, and thus very heavy. Also the stocks are usually very dense, with the usual convex curves where it should be straight. It will make a heavy but good looking musket.
Armi-sport advantages - properly contoured barrel, and more appropriate barrel bands. Disadvantages - Clumsy stockwork often made too thin immediately in front and behind the lock panels - and much more noticeable - often they have the foreend shaved down so that the step at the lower band is an even 1/16 of an inch or less all round. It should be more on the order of 1/4 inch at the bottom. It is simply impossible to make the stocks of some Armisports look right.
Neither has a proper hammer, and I assume you'll have the lockplates replaced or remarked, as none of them are right. Both need more woodworking than simply stripping the varnish off and lindseed oiling. If you are wanting a machine made interchangable London Armoury gun you can keep the lower sling swivel, lock screw washers, and the buttplate screws and trigger guard screws can be as is. For the other guns, screw slots need to be aligned with the length of the gun and the screw heads contoured to fit the part. Sometimes you need to replace them so they can be contoured properly. This is very often overlooked by most "defarbers".
At least you have the opportunity to borrow the Palmer bands off your Armisport to put on the Euroarms if you go that route....or borrow the rear sight off the Euroarms for the Armisport if you go that route....
Sadly, you cannot simply stick the Armisport barrel on the Euroarms stock - they won't interchange, and it is just swimming in the middle where the Euroarms barrel is oversized. For me it would boil down to the choice of what is more important - weight or appearance.

[Andrew_Atkins]

Re: Euroarms Enfield vs. Armisport Enfield

A good article that will have an answer for you.

http://authentic-campaigner.com/articles/walden/enfield%20pages/enfauth.htm

Andrew Atkins