Mystery of the Missing Wartime Long Branch Snipers

[boltaction]

Is it also possible that many just met the same fate as many "non-sniper" rifles? They were sold as surplus, picked up by hunters and sportsmen, and sporterized? True that one does not see many of them showing up like that at shows and such, but the attrition on the Bubba specials was very high. They were cheap, used hard, and abused much. I worked at a sporting goods store in Saskatoon in the 1980's and part owned one in the '90's, and I can't even tell you how many sporterized Enfields came and went. By that stage, no one was buying full wood Enfields and sporterizing them fresh, because that was in the days before the last releases of full wood Lee Enfields came out, so the full wood ones were very scarce. However, the damage had already been done; some of the older shooters recalled being able to buy them by the barrel full in the 1960's and they were cut down left right and centre. I was only interested in the full wood ones, so really never gave the sporter ones a second glance; one abused Lee-Enfield looked much like another. I do recall one coming in with a #32 scope on it, and it was probably originally a sniper unit. Couldn't say whether it was Brit or Canadian made, but since it had a chopped barrel and was beat up pretty good it didn't matter.

Ed

Ed