Parker Hale .577 2-Band Enfield

Parker Hale .577 2-Band Enfield

THE PARKER-HALE ENFIELD

In the early 1970s, the Birmingham gun-maker Parker-Hale began selling reproduction Enfield rifles to both (re)enactors and live fire enthusiasts, or “skirmishers.” The company ceased production (in England) of muzzleloaders in 1990. These are considered among the highest quality reproductions of Civil War-era rifles and rifle- muskets ever produced. The first reproduction Parker Hale Enfield’s became available for sale beginning in 1972, starting with the 1861 Artillery carbine. This was followed by their Enfield long rifle (P53) in 1974, Naval rifle (P58) in 1975 and later a .451 “Whitworth” target rifle. The P53 was by far the most popular Parker Hale product.The Birmingham Parker-Hales are now gone but not forgotten.

First of all, Parker-Hale was an English gun-maker founded in the Gun Quarter of Birmingham England. Alfred Gray Parker and Arthur Hale founded the business to provide shooting supplies to the British Volunteer companies and the marksmanship (target shooting) clubs in England around 1880.

Over the years the firm primarily produced small caliber bolt-action target rifles. Parker Hale’s Production Manager John Le Breton decided in the early 1970s that he wanted to make an exact reproduction of the Enfield black powder muzzle loading rifle, and that he wanted the gun to reflect the exact specifications of the original Enfield rifles. He assigned an engineer named Tony Kinchin to the project.

An expert on the history of US Civil War arms noted, “In an attempt to meet Le Breton's request, Tony Kinchin traveled to the (Royal Armoury) museum at Enfield to record the dimensions of original rifle-muskets and the tooling used to manufacture them. To his delight, the museum director allowed him to take a set of original Enfield master gauges back to Parker Hale.” [2] What this means is that Parker-Hale copied (almost exactly) from original gauges the specifications for the machine made P53 British service rifle. This is the so called type IV Enfield that was manufactured at Royal Small Arms Factory by the British War Department to supply their own troops. This particular version of the Enfield rifle was an improved design over earlier models still being commercially manufactured using individual craftsmen as they had for centuries in Birmingham and London. The two types were close in overall design, but not exactly the same in detail.

The net result was the Birmingham Parker Hale was the best reproduction Enfield available for most of its almost twenty year production run.

Parker-Hale Limited

Pattern 1853 Enfield

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