Who is doing all the Enfield target shooting??

[Colonel Enfield]

The World War I Centenary is certainly helping people rediscover the old rifles too, though it has suddenly pushed the prices up in this part of the world as people with greater wallet sizes than understanding of old rifles decide they want "one of those Anzac guns".

For what it's worth, the service rifle folks where I shoot have made a conscious decision that, at least at club level, people are welcome to use sporterised military rifles in the Service Rifle competition matches; the price of "proper" service rifles keep going up and the first exposure a lot of younger shooters have is getting a cheap sporterised .303 from somewhere (perhaps an older, licenced family member).

We figured that having them show up at the range and having people sniffing dismissively at those rifles and saying "that's not original, it can get in the sea" wasn't going to help anyone - or the shooting sports generally.

There's a few target SMLE and No 4 rifles which show up as well and for new or older shooters they're welcome to join in with the regular competition. Since we all accept the rifles are far more accurate than most of us, the emphasis is on enjoying the competition and its spirit for the most part.

Obviously if you want to shoot competitively at state or national level then you're going to need proper gear, but service shooters are well-known for being a friendly and generous lot and people are often more than happy to share guns if someone's missing an appropriate one for a match.