1941 golden state rifle?

Question

i have a 1941 golden state rifle .its a 303 enfield sporterised rifle.unsure if its britsh 303 or american 303.i know check headspace but i was hoping someone might know enough history on it to help .it says santafe on barrel

Answer 1

Golden State Arms was one of the first companies that specialized in sporterizing old war guns. That was the golden age of military surplus (1950's-1960's) and there were millions of them to be had. You could pick up a surplus Lee Enfield for $12 and even that low, you couldn't sell the numbers that existed. They made them more attractive by sporterizing them and selling them as civilian rifles. They processed hundreds of thousands of Lee Enfields, Springfields, Mausers, possibly even a few Garands etc etc etc that way.

Your rifle, chances are, started life as a Lithgow No1 Mk3 Lee Enfield before having its bits machined off. Compare your receiv er to this one here and see if it looks like yours?

http://san1.atlanta.gbhinc.com/GB/085296000/85296003/pix1811486031.jpg

http://san1.atlanta.gbhinc.com/GB/085296000/85296003/pix1811486328.jpg

Modern sporterized rifles don't go for much....they're designed for shooting and shooting is what they do best. Too many purists today look down on sporterized guns like their opinion is better than anyone else's. But Golden State guns, sporterized before there was even a term "sporterized" actually do hold their value. Yours is most likely worth at least $50-100 more than that very same rifle would be worth in its original condition today. You can pick up decent shootable Mk 3's in the $100-150 range all day long....your Golden Stater will go around $200. That said, in my opinion, you should pick up a few hundred rounds of milsurp .303 and head to your local range. That gun will start a few conversations.

Before I forget, it *is* .303 Brit. Military surplus ammo is common. Hunting ammo for that gun is made by at least a half a dozen major suppliers and it's a good round for pretty much anything in North America. It's pretty close to the .308 in performance with good commercial ammo. It's quite popular as a hunting round.

In reply to Irv: Irv, there was at one time a round known as a .303 Savage. A lot of oldtimers referred to it as .303 American. It's not been commercially produced since about 1935 or so if my memory serves me. It is NOT the same as .303 Brit nor is it safe to shoot in an Enfield. You can, however, make .303 Savage brass from .303 Brit brass.

I just checked.....303 Savage is in small production and can be purchased via Old Western Scrounger. Once again, it is NOT the same as .303 Brit, no matter how much they look like each other.

Answer 2

properly, they at the instant are in a three way tie, so it is gonna be exciting. i think that Denver will make it. they are warm suitable now, extremely meshing and playing good ball and that they've crushed good communities. Golden State are additionally playing properly, they have an entire potential lineup and that i think of they're going to take the 8th seed. Dallas misses out, no longer basically because of the fact of Dirk's injury however the tousled their chemistry with JKidd and are nonetheless finding their ft. Denver - seventh seed, GSW - 8th seed, Dallas - domicile early.

Answer 3

'303` is the old British Mil. cartridge,
there is no other version.
Remington used to load the cartridge with a 180Gr.
softpoint at about 2300 FPS.
Santa Fe was probably a small outfit that sporterized
and sold the surplus rifles.
Is it an Enfield, or SMLE? (If it takes a box magazine,
it's the latter, and should be checked out. If it's an Enfield,
its a strong brute, no worry.)
If it's been sporterized, there's no collector value, but
those military actions were pretty tough.
If it's in good shape, you've probably got a good
reliable 'shooter`.

Answer 4

Just type it in the search section & you can get lots of information on it.*