Any one else sick of the misinformation?

[Frederick303]

It seems to me a lot of the negative thoughts towards the Enfield Rifles in the US goes way back to the 1960s, when the less-accurate part-worn rifles came over in the great flood of surplus between 1953 and 1968. Many of the guns had bedding issues. At the same time no one knew much of anything on how to regulate the rifles, it was not until Reynolds book came out in 1960, which had a small printing run that the information was available. Frankly I have never seen a copy of Reynolds pre 2nd edition of 1968 in the US of A. So most folks did not know how to rectify the issues.


Add to that the rifles coming over Pre 1968 were almost all throat worn, so the issue with nitro accuracy out of a worn throat could come into play post 1968, when most of the large imports of 303 kind of dried up. Yes there were periodic imports of the ammunition, but post 1979 to around 1984 virtually none came in as it was bought up for various 3rd world areas.


SMLE rifles have a tendency to string vertically, which seems to be its worst in the 200 yard range. Mixed lots of ammunition make it worse. Lots of the surplus that did come over prior to the final large sale was mixed lots, so the older ammunition lots, particularly the ex-belted ammo had a reputation for erratic vertical dispersion.


When the war reserves stocks started to come in to the US, like the Australian SMLE rifles and the various like new or near new No 4 MK II, it was quite a shock to many folks how accurate the rifles could be. But for the non Enfield specialist, the reputation was already formed.

[CINDERS]

Hi Muffet yeah I have re-joined the gravy train again as semi retirement was not quite working out with buying a small fleet of Ducati's has seen a great increase in wallet moths so I am back full time as Project HSE Advisor on a $23.5 million dollar shed for Spodumene (A mineral mined close to where we live used to make Lithium batteries) up at 04:30 home at 17:00 thing is I am not FIFO and only 27 klms from home so an easy commute home every night.
I don't get much free time which I had basically a troglodyte but I do get to see the family at night but like with sharing the load with the wife we get a bit of time watching the idiot box or You Tube with m/cycle fails then ZZZZ'ed land.
I have been naughty with buying stuff for the bikes I now posses 6 Jackets in total 2 dri-riders and 4 leather jackets (Bike specific to what I am riding have to look the part) 2 senas, 2 helmets, a HeroBlack 7 Go-pro, Kevlar jeans & riding boots, Ducati racing gloves they alone were $400plus, I then had to basically buy the same for my wife (Including the bike/s) though she only has 1 leather jacket (Ducati of course) 1 dri-rider jacket etc etc.

[Ovidio]

Hi Cinders, nice reading from you again.
Me too...I thought you got lost.

[mrclark303]

These anti Enfield rants are invariably made by people who have never fired a rifle, let alone an Enfield.

It's quite simply the finest bolt action rifle in the world, 10 round mag, Lighting fast action and utterly reliable.

Not accurate?!

Tell that to those who have been on the 'wrong side' over the years, they may have a different option!

Plenty accurate enough for government work...

[Ovidio]

I love my Enfields, but strangely enough my favourite has become one with a Mauser action...

[Ridolpho]

I collect and shoot many different types and while I am a huge fan of Lee Enfields I find myself doing a lot of shooting with Mosins these days. With them we have the advantage of cheap surplus ammo that is regulated to the sights in addition to a very good safety record comparable to the LE's. I have one PU Sniper that will shoot sub MOA repeatedly with sooty Chinese surplus. I handload for my LE's and struggle to achieve that kind of performance. In any case, the reality of it is that none of these systems were perfect. Few, if any, countries fielded awful infantry rifles but all systems were compromises between economic realities (or politics) and technical specs.

A big problem with keeping the LE alive here in my part of Canada is a lack of organized shooting events open to what should be our "National Rifle". We have a local Swiss club (with excellent range) catering to the K31 and next to it a superb "fullbore" range with, I believe, up to 1000m shooting. They cater only to modern stuff (a real challenge shooting at 500m with a 20 power scope!) and have no provision for older type military rifle shooting. When I tried to join that one about 7 years ago and indicated I planned to shoot a No. 4 with target sights the fellow from the club politely told me to go away. A shame as I've shot iron sighted LE's, Mosins, P14's, etc on that range and everyone is always a bit shocked at how easy it is to score at 300-400m with the old stuff.

Ridolpho

[Gil Boyd]

This thread is getting like the BREXIT debate............you can't please everybody all of the time...........however, the Lee Enfield in whatever model or size is the finest all round rilfe in the world in MY humble opinion!!

[Sunray]

"...before adopting more modern arms..." Both being FN's, as I recall. India eventually got all the tooling and machinery from Canadian Arsenal Long Branch when Trudeau the Elder closed the place. However, the idiocy going on there is Hindu vs Moslem and what gang of terrorists the two governments support. Nothing new about it. Issue now is that they both have nukes.
"...negative towards the SMLE..." Except for the sights, they're kind of hard to beat. Unless where you are adopted something else. A Pattern 14 had half the mag capacity. That would have made the assorted Generals who didn't trust their men, happy. Not as good as 10 in a fight though.
Australia didn't go with the No. 4 because they decided the No. 1 worked just fine and didn't need changing. Or so I was told.
"...that BS..." It's not BS. However, it does not apply to any Lee-Enfield that was not assembled out of parts bins by places like Century Arms and Globco or 'some guy in his basement with no tools'. It doesn't apply to Parker Hales or any of the No. 7's and No. 4's that were actually maintained by the CF for Cadets either.
"...Mauser tried to arm the entire world..." So did FN. Same rules too. They'd even ask how many mags and whether you wanted 'em loaded. Sam Colt, Remington and Olly Winchester did pretty much the same thing too.

[Paul S.]

My two favourites of my rifles are a 1915 BSA that has a very smooth trigger, and a No.4 MK. II that I paid the whopping sum of $100 for that shoots like a dream.

[mrclark303]

This thread is getting like the BREXIT debate............you can't please everybody all of the time...........however, the Lee Enfield in whatever model or size is the finest all round rilfe in the world in MY humble opinion!!

Absolutely Gil, a superb all round military rifle.

To be honest, it's very hard to knock the No4 (personal favourite,the SMLE in all it's variants), it's the pinnacle of mass produced bolt action rifles.

I love shooting my Springfield, it only has one serous weakness to be honest and that's because it's not a Lee Enfield!