Can somebody I.D. this rifle?

[Warpspasm]

I friend of mine brought a rifle over and asked if I could find out what it was. His father left it to him when he passed away a few weeks ago. We figure it's a .45-70 Navy, but it's not a Remington , it's a Lee Arms. Not positive about the caliber either. I forgot to get it in the photo, but on the left side of barrel, near the receiver, there is a small insignia of the letter P over WMF and a small anchor. It's missing the magazine, but has a long bayonet that attaches to the muzzle. Any ideas?

 

[Warpspasm]

I think somebody took off the rear sight and put it back on backwards.

 

[Machodoc]

Looks like a pre-Enfield Lee Model 1879. There are several people here who know Lees better than I do, but it may be a very nice piece to have. DON'T do anything to it!

 

[Nister969]

Looks like a Lee Arms Co. Model 1879 magazine fed U.S. Navy bolt-action rifle, .45-70 cal.

http://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=12499644&mobile=0

 

[RG99]

Looks like a Lee Arms Co. Model 1879 magazine fed U.S. Navy bolt-action rifle, .45-70 cal.

http://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=12499644&mobile=0

That's exactly what is is. Pretty rare worth about 500-750 dollars.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Paris_Lee

 

[SKIP]

Lots of photos of Lee 1879.

http://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=23176

 

[Jimbob2.0]

Looks like a Lee Arms Co. Model 1879 magazine fed U.S. Navy bolt-action rifle, .45-70 cal.

http://www.icollector.com/item.aspx?i=12499644&mobile=0

Yup, winner winner ground chicken dinner.

 

[mawkie]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I live for stuff like this. Shows the genius of James Paris Lee in the early part of his career. Here's where the box magazine got started.
I've seen mags for Remington Lees avail. up on the net regularly so finding one shouldn't be too difficult. Expect to pay around $150.

 

[amoebicmagician]

hmm, I've heard of patina but this is ridiculous. I was always taught if it's brown/red, get rid of that crap cause it's going to corrode away to nothing, but if it's blackish like that showed in the picture, that a passivation layer has formed and that with addition of some oil it works as well as parkerizing for protection of the metal.

Am I wrong?

 

[Chaunsey]

hmm, I've heard of patina but this is ridiculous. I was always taught if it's brown/red, get rid of that crap cause it's going to corrode away to nothing, but if it's blackish like that showed in the picture, that a passivation layer has formed and that with addition of some oil it works as well as parkerizing for protection of the metal.

Am I wrong?

you should never remove patina from a gun of any value, if you want to take something thats not worth much and make it look nice thats more understandable.

keep the gun stored properly with a light surface coat of oil like you should anyway, ive never heard that the plum patina is any worse than another, its just bluing, buing tends to turn to plum with age, bluing is itself a form of rust, and over a long period of time ti can turn to plum.

 

[303_enfield]

Now, you need the $200 magazine!