aliceinchains
02-08-2002, 08:51 PM
Back when the sun never set on the british empire,you could find the short magazine lee enfield(smle).303 from hong kong to hudson's bay,from kenya to kashmir, and from uganda to the yukon.
James paris lee of wisconsin designed the prototype in 1879.Remington arms was considering producing the first model in 1881,but financial setbacks which almost destroyed the company led to lee to peddle the design to the british.By the time remington had reorganized,the empire had adopted an improved version.
Originally,the 303 british was a black powder round pushing a 215-grain projectile until the brits switched to cordite in1892.In ww1 the enfield was topped with a 174-grain bullet moving at 2,440 fps and things pretty much stayed the same until it was replaced by the 7.62 nato in 1957.
The biggest problem with the enfield is that it is not a mauser ,locking at the opposite end, resulting in a spongy action.It suffers mainly by comparison.On its own, especially in the no. 4 mk1 version, with its medium barrel of just over 25 inches, it was suitable for infantry and calvalry alike.Perhaps the most sought after enfield variant is the no.5 mk1 jungle carbine with its 20 inch barrel.
The smle has one great advantage for the collector-it is relatively politically correct.It was designed with a 10 round magazine.
But if you are going to use a smle for more than just a wall hanger, you must have the headspace checked.Even on a fairly tight action the enfields characteristically spongy action may allow cases to stretch, and on a loose action , case-head seperation can be a real danger on full power loads.
I thought this was interesting.
James paris lee of wisconsin designed the prototype in 1879.Remington arms was considering producing the first model in 1881,but financial setbacks which almost destroyed the company led to lee to peddle the design to the british.By the time remington had reorganized,the empire had adopted an improved version.
Originally,the 303 british was a black powder round pushing a 215-grain projectile until the brits switched to cordite in1892.In ww1 the enfield was topped with a 174-grain bullet moving at 2,440 fps and things pretty much stayed the same until it was replaced by the 7.62 nato in 1957.
The biggest problem with the enfield is that it is not a mauser ,locking at the opposite end, resulting in a spongy action.It suffers mainly by comparison.On its own, especially in the no. 4 mk1 version, with its medium barrel of just over 25 inches, it was suitable for infantry and calvalry alike.Perhaps the most sought after enfield variant is the no.5 mk1 jungle carbine with its 20 inch barrel.
The smle has one great advantage for the collector-it is relatively politically correct.It was designed with a 10 round magazine.
But if you are going to use a smle for more than just a wall hanger, you must have the headspace checked.Even on a fairly tight action the enfields characteristically spongy action may allow cases to stretch, and on a loose action , case-head seperation can be a real danger on full power loads.
I thought this was interesting.