BSA Commercial No1 Mk3.

[Alan de Enfield]

I'm working on collecting all the models BSA made for competition rifles and so far have found a M.L.E. MkI*, a C.L.L.E. MkI*, and a No.1 MkIII. I'm amazed at how well cared for these rifles are and some have almost as varied a history, judging by the stamps, as a service rifle had. Interestingly, the M.L.E. despite being rebarreled at Lithgow just prior to WWII still sports the longer barrel. I've read that after the S.M.L.E. entered service that all competition rifles had to shorten their barrels to S.M.L.E. specs to be able to enter competitions.

It is quite interesting that in comparison tests done at the time 0f the Mk111 being introduced the results showed little difference between the 'long rifle' and the 'short rifle'.
With the difference in FoM at 600 yards being about 1" and only about 1/2" at 500 yards.