Friend Buffdog lives only 20 miles from me, made the terrible mistake of bringing this old beauty over for coffee the other day. After I got the heart going again, I drooled all OVER the poor thing. It is every bit as nice as he says.

But what a chunk of OUR history! It has seen parts of three centuries and all of one, been through at least three major wars, it has been a Lee-Metford and a Lee-Enfield, a Long rifle, a Short Rifle, a heavy-barreled rifle, a light-barreled rifle, an Army rifle, a Navy rifle (the position of the N gives the order of service; it went to the Navy after it was Converted), it has seen Mark II, Mark III, Mark IV, Mark V, Mark VI and Mark VII as the standard Service round, it has been a hunting rifle and now it is a treasured piece of history.

And there are people out there who would toss it into a shredder and smelt it for scrap for any variety of twisted 'reasons'. If it were in SOME countries, it would be an object of worship.

Thankfully, this one has been saved for posterity.
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