Just when was the 'golden era'of Enfield target shooting?

[Surpmil]

Tbone hit the nail on the head regarding the " resurgence" due to bans etc, and I agree with Surpmil,s comments, not many coming back from a War wanting to go to the rifle range, but the date I would say was between the end of the Boer War 1902 up until 1914.

It was During the Boer War that the need for a shorter rifle was noted and also the marksman ship of the Boers was a big influence, A lot of lessons were learnt during this war, apart from sending men over a trench into on coming fire.

Yes, I think you're right re: the Boer War pinpointing the dates more precisely. There was a great earnestness after that "no end of a lesson" in South Africa, in encouraging both civilian and military marksmanship, such as had not been seen since the 1860s or 70s when the "Volunteer Movement", so-called, really took off. As we all know, this was encouraged by Lord Roberts and several other leading figures of the time, who concluded that something like a class of 'yeoman marksman' was needed (call it the British equivalent of the Boer 'burgher marksman'). I use the term "yeoman" because I get the impression they wanted to emulate the kind of widespread expertise with arms that existed in the days when archery practice was a universal obligation.

Of course not all segments of society were quite so keen on the idea of mass familiarity with and access to arms, but that was not much spoken of apparently!

General Sir Ian Hamilton gave some interesting reminiscences of the value of accurate rifle fire in both peace and war. He reminded his hearers that at the Battle of Majuba Hill, the morale of the British troops on the summit was badly depressed and shaken by a single well-aimed shot, fired by a Boer at 1,000 yards which mortally wounded Commander Romilly (RN Detachment) as he climbed upon a little hillock to get a better view of the enemy. It was that shot and other similar experiences which convinced Sir Ian Hamilton of the value of the rifle and caused him to join wholeheartedly with Lord Roberts in his campaign for civilian rifle clubs and really adequate musketry instruction in the Army.

It's getting off-topic a bit but there is more about this action here: THE FIRST ANGLO-BOER WAR

What is interesting about that quote is that it conflates the experiences of the first and second Boer Wars into one! The lessons of Majuba Hill were not really learned at all; it was only after the second Boer War ended in 1902 as you pointed out bigduke6, that the campaign for marksmanship really took hold.

Whether this conflation was just a literary simplification or whether Sir Ian Hamilton was discreetly pointing out that HE had learned the lesson of marksmanship before Lord Roberts and the others, I don't know!

[trooper554877]

Here in Oz I think the "resurgence", as in England is based on the prohibition of modern military weapons for sporting shooting purposes/competitive shooting. If you want to shoot service here, you use a WW2 era or earlier bolt action. There is the availability of High Power, where you can use a vintage bolt gun or a modern bolt action (lots of Tikka T3's). Other than that it's full bore, which I like too, but it's pretty static precision shooting.
If I lived in the USA or NZ believe me my enfield collection would be smaller, and I'd be shooting service every week with a match grade AR15, with the .303's for the "Theme shoots".

mate you hit it on the head!! there are some left in Australia that can remember when we had SLR's and AR's, imagine the participation if they where legal now and we had the interest we have now, WOW what a great time we would be having and I reckon we would see a nationally sponsored team off to camp perry every year!!!

cheers
NED
What humphf, I just woke up and read what i wrote, must have been dreaming!!

[tbonesmith]

I shot my first season of service rifle in 1995 in Sydney with a borrowed AR15 and my first No4. The clubs were full, the competition fierce and the standard of shooting excellent. It's a shame the "resurgence" doesn't cover 1/4 of those who drifted away, and many who died since the 1996 buy back. I would like to appeal to any collector out there who would like to and doesn't, to make the effort to get out to some of the service shoots, and get amongst the shooting side of things. It staggers me every time I go to the range "Why arn't there more people here" to me it's a fantastic sport and activity to be a part of.

[RobSmith]

Personally I'd say late 50's when prodigious quantities of wartime surplus was released to the public, resulting in an Enfield Rifle of some description in virtually every home. Most would have been "converted" to "hunting rifles" but invariably many of them would have been used for target work also. By then a lot of gunsmiths had gathered enough of a knowledge base to be able to "accurize" almost anything, and since Enfields were in abundant supply, there would have been an awful lot of them being made up into "precision rifles".