For those looking for that "rare" enfield to add to their collection

[Peter Laidler]

Off at a tangent a bit but........ While I was researching the Boys rifle (no....., not BOYES, but BOYS.....) over several years, I came across several of these 'officer' rank titles among the staff at both Enfield and Woolwich. Such as 'captain' Harold Boys......... Quite where the titles such as Capt this and Major that came from is unclear but they didn't feature in the old Army LIsts that are housed at the mail library at Aldershot. Were they Commissioned titles that someone sort of dished out then or what? Maybe they were, er ......... Anyway!

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Only ever seen (and fondled) one Ainley rifle in my time, and that was in Australia, about thirty years ago.

It had come out of a collection in Canada that included a BSA SMLE in .276 Pedersen and a whole lot of other goodies I can't remember.

The Ainley I played with was beautifully finished and chambered for an outrageous .276 "experimental" cartridge resembling a non-belted 7mm Remington Mag. or .280 Ross on steroids. The action body had integral "rails" to take some sort of optical sight and the rear "iron" sight was a work of art. Its final version appeared in 1939. Not being adopted may have been a bit of bad luck for the designers and makers, but probably a HUGE blessing for the hard bastards who had to shoot their way into Germany and history a few bloody years later.

See the picture in slide 26 of this presentation: British small arms development The inter war years

[Promo]

Who was this guy who died a few years ago in Australia? He had an amazing Enfield collection, I remember seeing one of the Ainley rifles in a picture (see attachement)

[Surpmil]

Only ever seen (and fondled) one Ainley rifle in my time, and that was in Australia, about thirty years ago.

It had come out of a collection in Canada that included a BSA SMLE in .276 Pedersen and a whole lot of other goodies I can't remember.

The Ainley I played with was beautifully finished and chambered for an outrageous .276 "experimental" cartridge resembling a non-belted 7mm Remington Mag. or .280 Ross on steroids. The action body had integral "rails" to take some sort of optical sight and the rear "iron" sight was a work of art. Its final version appeared in 1939. Not being adopted may have been a bit of bad luck for the designers and makers, but probably a HUGE blessing for the hard bastards who had to shoot their way into Germany and history a few bloody years later.

See the picture in slide 26 of this presentation: British small arms development The inter war years

A few very interesting things jump out from the power-point: one being the desire to create an infantry rifle ("probably based on the Pattern 14") which would have had an anti-armour capability almost equivalent to the proposed anti-tank rifle(!) This one assumes was at least the justification for the hyper-velocity. Did the idea live on in the Ainley Rifle?

Promo, that Ainley Rifle in Australia has a mount and Patt. 18 scope that turned up on eBay in the UK some years back being sold by a gent who had been in "aerospace". I recognized the mount based on the photos in "The British Sniper" and advised IDS of it. I was told the gent whose collection you refer to then obtained it for his rifle.

The photos on p.95 of "The British Sniper" show the the lug on top of the receiver ring that helped to ensure correct alignment.

The scope & mount have been very nicely refinished, but as you can see from the paint on the objective lens cover, it is the very same scope.

Where the 'thumb screws' came from I don't know; perhaps the No4(T) bracket screws fit?

I can't help wondering what that Patt. 18 scope and it's Ainley mount were fitted to and for how long, to incur all the wear and the painted finish, visible in the eBay photos! Did someone obtain an Ainley rifle and make a 'user' out of it, or was one or more sent out for a combat trial in WWII? We may never know!

Attachment 56186