My Finest Rifle

Here is my most favored shooting piece:



It is one of Her Majesty’s No 4 Mk II Lee-Enfield rifles manufactured in the year 1955 at Fazakerley in England.

It arrived to me in mint unissued shape, still in cosmoline and wrapped in arsenal paper.

It is the smoothest, fastest, slickest bolt that can be imagined. The ten-round capacity is comforting, and the aperture style sights are perfect.

This magnificent rifle just feels “right”. The .303 British cartridge is excellent for small to medium game as well. The rifle can also be reloaded with what is known in British parlance as a “charger”.

I’ve acquired some excellent Greek surplus ammunition for it, plus a matching 1955 dated No 9 blade bayonet and sling.

I truly feel very happy when I shoot this rifle.

Glenn

Looks like you're set for the "mad minute".

Nice!.......

I'm old enough to remember seeing those blonde wood versions in cosmoline advertised as "Irish" Enfields for $99. With bayonet and sling iirc.

Glenn R. McMannly said:

Here is my most favored shooting piece:
I truly feel very happy when I shoot this rifle.
Glenn

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And that Sir is priceless...

Just had a young military enthusiast from Florida arrive at my house. Have hunted with his grandfather for decades. He was on his way to work in Yellowstone for the summer. Over lunch he was talking, proudly, about acquiring a SMLE but was very discouraged as he had owned it for 18 months and could not find a single round of ammo in his local. After lunch we visited my den, and he walked away with 60 rounds of Greek fmj in stripper clips and a box of soft points. Have to keep the young ones enthused so we oldsters are not the last generation that cared.

Mine is still in the mummy wrap.

I've seen these referred to as "Irish rifles", and it is possible that some blonde No4 Mk2s came from that production batch, but their serials all began with "PF". I know that not all Irish rifles are blonde, because mine certainly isn't. The accepted wisdom today is that most the rifles with serials starting "UF 55" came from British war reserve stores (some say Royal Air Force) having never been issued. Rumor control still has a very limited number of UF 55 rifles being sent to Ireland.

Very nice! Did those rifles have a bolt guide included? read where mausers contained a bolt guide in early production guns.

mauser9 said:

Very nice! Did those rifles have a bolt guide included? read where mausers contained a bolt guide in early production guns.

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Bolt design is entirely different. The bolt head on an Enfield slides on a guide if that is what you mean.

Beautiful! I read on the Enfield Rifle forum all the time about how the Canadians hunt moose with them so that .303 has my admiration.

Very nice! I have a very nice No. 5 Mk. 1 (Jungle Carbine) but would jump on a nice No. 4 if I came upon one.

To Glenn (the OP),
Very nice! I admire that you took it out of the wrapper, cleaned off the cosmoline, and took it out shooting!
I bet a few collectors shed a tear or two!

My dad grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This was the naval gateway between Canada and Europe during WWII, and pretty much every other relevant military conflict.
My dad often described seeing open freight train car loads piled up with Lee-Enfields, and other rifles, after the war. He said that every hardware store, military surplus store, pawn shop, etc. had barrels of Lee-Enfields for sale, typically priced at $3.00 a piece.

The first “real gun” I ever owned was a Lee-Enfield that my dad brought home from a business trip to Halifax. My uncle had the rifle and, not wanting it himself, had planned to throw it out in the trash! My dad rescued it and gave it to me!
And (if this isn’t an anacronism out of the past), my dad was even allowed to bring it on the flight home as carry-on luggage!

fiasconva wrote: “ I read on the Enfield Rifle forum all the time about how the Canadians hunt moose with them so that .303 has my admiration.”
This is very true. Inuits, eskimoes, mi’kmacq, and every other native peoples use Lee-Enfields for all of their hunting. Besides moose, they have been used to hunt large numbers of walrus and sea lions.
It helps that, besides being available at one point almost for nothing, the Lee-Enfield is super reliable under the harshest imaginable conditions.

Elwood Epps, a gunsmith based in Orillia Ontario, developed a number of wildcat cartridges based on the 303 British case. He made quite a living rebuilding and sporterizing Lee-Enfields.
If you spot a sporterized Epps Enfield for a good price, don’t pass it up!

Attached is a photo of a standard 303 British (left) and the 303 Epps (right). The real advantage of the Epps cartridge is the pronounced shoulder forward of the British cartridge. This allowed for both positive headspacing and the correction of excessive headspacing in most military barrel chambers.
If you’re a handloader, you know how important this is!

The SMLE in all it's various marks was a robust, powerful and accurate military weapon. Back in the fifties here in Australia after the war years there were an abundance of them available, along with a readily supply of cheap ammunition. They became the backbone of the many rifle clubs throughout the country, and many were cut down to be used for hunting. In later years many an enthusiast re-barreled them in 303/25 caliber.

Engine49guy said:

I'm old enough to remember seeing those blonde wood versions in cosmoline advertised as "Irish" Enfields for $99. With bayonet and sling iirc.

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Well, keep in mind that's about what I paid for mine - no stones please!





I shoot lefty because I'm left eye dominant, but am very right handed. Off a bench, keeping my right hand on the bolt handle, I can run the action pretty fast. But most of the time I'm shooting for "minute of soup can" with pretty good success.

The SMLE is a fine firearm and that .303 round is plenty powerful for the lower 48. Yours is a beautiful example.

No doubt many of you are familiar with the Long Branch variant of the Lee-Enfield. This rifle was built during WWII at the Long Branch Arsenal formerly located west of Toronto, Ontario.

I used to live in the area and took a train in and out of Toronto every day. One of the train stops is named “Long Branch”.
Sure enough, it is named after the arsenal.
Built in 1891, Long Branch Arsenal served until just after WWII, where Lee-Enfields, not mention the Sten gun, were built.
So, one day I got off at that station and took a short walk, easily finding the long shuttered arsenal property. There were a couple dilapidated industrial buildings and a water tower. The only clue to its previous function were a few bullet backstop baffles. These were basically two-sided wooden framed walls, quite thick, filled with earth.
Besides providing for testing purposes, the arsenal hosted shooting team events for the benefit of their employees and immediate family. By the way, the workforce was virtually all women! They were paid $20-30/week at a time when a waitress might make $5.

I didn’t take any photos, but I’ve attached a few pictures from the war era. Look closely at the assembly line photos and you will see the unmistakable images of various Lee-Enfield components being fabricated.

Although there was nothing there to tell the story that the Long Branch Arsenal played in the war effort, I felt a sense of pride knowing that this historical landmark was part of my local life.

Favorite 303's

I have an almost new No5 North Branch Jungle Carbine from 1954. All my No4's have seen use. For ammo I had a belt of 333 cartridges on Browning type links. I thought it was a Greek headstamp, but it turns out to be Iraqi.

I think my favorite 303 is a 1904 Citadel Martini with bayonet and scabbard. One neat thing is the rifling is Medford style instead of Enfield. This is good for Copper Jacketed 200 grain RN Bullets and 40 grains of FFFg Black Powder (close as I can get to 303's original loading). If you have an old 303 bolt action with a 7 shot magazine, that's the ammo it was made for. (See Val Kilmer's bolt action rifle in "The Ghost and the Darkness.") Eley-Kynok used to make "Cordite for Black Powder" ammo, for easier clean up and no cloud. But where is the fun in a classic rifle without your own cloud system?

The first time I reloaded was for a No III that I got in 1978. I used a Lee Loader (now called a "Classic Loader"). These only neck size and made great smokeless loads. When I went to 7/8-14 FL dies, I pushed back the shoulder (from generous chamber length) every time. It wasn't long before I had several head separations per outing. At first, I used a large/long straight slot screwdriver, just remove the bolt and shove in firm and twist. Later I found a 303 stuck cartridge remover for $4. These work great. I found that the 30-06 stuck case remover works on 303, 30-06 & 308. So, all my field kits have one of those!

Ivan

Ivan the Butcher said:

I have an almost new No5 North Branch Jungle Carbine from 1954. All my No4's have seen use. For ammo I had a belt of 333 cartridges on Browning type links. I thought it was a Greek headstamp, but it turns out to be Iraqi.

I think my favorite 303 is a 1904 Citadel Martini with bayonet and scabbard. One neat thing is the rifling is Medford style instead of Enfield. This is good for Copper Jacketed 200 grain RN Bullets and 40 grains of FFFg Black Powder (close as I can get to 303's original loading). If you have an old 303 bolt action with a 7 shot magazine, that's the ammo it was made for. (See Val Kilmer's bolt action rifle in "The Ghost and the Darkness.") Eley-Kynok used to make "Cordite for Black Powder" ammo, for easier clean up and no cloud. But where is the fun in a classic rifle without your own cloud system?

The first time I reloaded was for a No III that I got in 1978. I used a Lee Loader (now called a "Classic Loader"). These only neck size and made great smokeless loads. When I went to 7/8-14 FL dies, I pushed back the shoulder (from generous chamber length) every time. It wasn't long before I had several head separations per outing. At first, I used a large/long straight slot screwdriver, just remove the bolt and shove in firm and twist. Later I found a 303 stuck cartridge remover for $4. These work great. I found that the 30-06 stuck case remover works on 303, 30-06 & 308. So, all my field kits have one of those!

Ivan

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Hi Ivan,

You have good taste, I must say!

Yes, the 303 Martini really embodies the qualities of the early 303 loading. My brother currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There is a park near his office which has a monument to Canada’s contribution to the Boer War. It features a large bronze statue of a soldier carrying his Martini rifle! (I’ll try to find the photo I took.)
Yes, the Metford rifling used radiused grooves rather than sharp square grooves. This avoided deep corners which were difficult to clean and prone to corrosion.

I used a Lee Loader, too, for 303! As you noted, it is ideal if you’re brass is used in one rifle and is fireformed to the chamber.
The first rifle loads I made used 32 cal roundballs simply pressed into the neck of a primed case loaded with a light charge of pistol powder. As an 11 yr old kid I had no place to shoot the 303 my dad gave me with full power ammo. (Couldn’t really afford that ammo either). But, a friend’s dad was a hunter and reloader that showed me the roundball “practice load”.

See pictures of Metford rifling. And, there’s a picture comparing cordite to smokeless 303 loads.

Ivan the Butcher said:

The first time I reloaded was for a No III that I got in 1978. I used a Lee Loader (now called a "Classic Loader"). These only neck size and made great smokeless loads. When I went to 7/8-14 FL dies, I pushed back the shoulder (from generous chamber length) every time. It wasn't long before I had several head separations per outing. At first, I used a large/long straight slot screwdriver, just remove the bolt and shove in firm and twist. Later I found a 303 stuck cartridge remover for $4. These work great. I found that the 30-06 stuck case remover works on 303, 30-06 & 308. So, all my field kits have one of those!

Ivan

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Enfields as designed headspace on the rim, so the varying shoulder locations and tapers found on these rifles was unimportant to the military. Not so for reloaders and those seeking maximum accuracy, of course. What tends to happen to the case is that the shoulder blows out some and the case stretches just above the rim as the headspace is taken up. Resizing puts the shoulder back, but cannot fix the stretch near the case head, and pretty soon the case head separates.

The reloader's trick for first firing of a 303 round is to have a synthetic O-ring on the case so the headspace is taken up and the bolt is in firm contact with the case head. This takes out the headspace at the rim and the case fire-forms the shoulder to that gun with no stretch at the case head. You can now neck resize with no issues, BUT that case is now matched to that one rifle.

After that the biggest accuracy debate with Enfields concerns flat-base versus boattail bullets. The standard British MkVII round used a flat base bullet to good effect. Boattails can be more accurate, but it depends on the precise dimensions and wear on a particular barrel. Comments on other reloading forums suggest that with flat-based bullets, there is not a big difference in performance between the various rifling schemes used in Enfield No4s. With boattails, barrel wear seems to be a bigger factor with the 2-groove barrels.

Ah yes, Enfields and their various rifling schemes. During WWII Enfield No4s were produced with 2, 4, 5, and 6-groove rifling, with 2 and 5 being by far the the majority. The BSA factory mostly used 4-groove barrels, and exclusively 4-groove barrels for their sniper rifles, the No4 Mk1T. Most of the improved accuracy over the guns from the other factories was simply down to BSA's build quality. The quality from the Fazakerley and Maltby factories was a notch or two down on BSA, looking at what lives in my safe. I have a 1944 Fazakerley with a mint bore but headspace measured using thick books, implying it may have missed the the induction hardening process on the receiver surfaces where the bolt bears. Such foul ups were not unknown.

Longbranch and Savage produced rifles suffered from "not invented here" syndrome in the eyes of the UK military, although sniper rifles were definitely built using Longbranch rifles. The jury is still out on whether any Mk1T rifles were ever made using Savage examples.

^^^^^^^^

That’s a great idea, using the O-ring!