r/canadaguns • u/SteetOnFire • 21d ago

Feets / Collection / My build Reunited after 120+ years - ISC D Company Snider-Enfields (1863 MkII** & 1869 Mk III) 🇨🇦

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My grandfather gave me the Mk II** a few years ago...

His older brother found it in a barn in the 1940s, and it has been sitting in a variety of closets ever since. It's sporterized, long as hell, and I just grew up playing with it without really thinking about it or looking it over.

I'm a history nerd, so when he gave it to me a couple years ago, I had to look into it and realized it's marked "D Company Infantry School Corps #16." D Company was formed in the late 1880s in London, Ontario as part of Canada's first permanent infantry force and was used to train militia soldiers.

The ISC eventually became the RCR, and D Coy became 4RCR. I was trying to find parts to fix it up, but fate brought me to this 1869 Mk III in perfect condition instead.

Same unit, and only a few rack numbers apart!! What are the odds of that? Insane!

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u/Ok-Target3363 21d ago

What ammo do they take?

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u/SteetOnFire 21d ago

.577 Snider

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u/Ok-Target3363 21d ago edited 21d ago

Interesting I would have thought it was paper cartridge.

Are these considered antiques even if they fire cartridge ammo?

Do you know any good websites to look for similar rifles ?

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u/SteetOnFire 20d ago

Yep, they are pre-1898, so they're antiques for sure. I'm no ammo expert, but .577 cartridges aren't made anymore, so you have to craft your own. There's info about that on YouTube. Check out British Muzzle Loaders.

As far as websites go, I bought this on collectors source, but gunpost has a bunch as well. They have all types of Sniders, which makes sense as we ordered thousands of them iirc