Oh Dear she says not another SMLE

[BigEyeBob]

Picked this up today , 1918 MkIII SMLE .
Has a "H" barrel , docked to 25" , trigger converted to single pull , Piers composite stock ,Weaver bridge mount and 1" rings .
Also accompanying it was a set of Lee Dies , 120 once fired PPU Brass and four extra magazines.
Its a nice light scrub rifle will be good for hogs and Sambar deer .

I have a Leupold 2x compact scope to fit to it.

[Artful]

Good find but Four Extra Magazines
- good grief, I one extra 5 rounder for hunting.
What where they doing with that gun?

[leadman]

Probably was somebodies truck or boat gun. It is unusual at least here in the States to have that many spare mags for an Enfield. Sure would be quick to reload, at least for awhile.
Looks like a good buy though.

[BigEyeBob]

Yes he carried it on a quad bike. The magazines sell for 80-110AUD here ( and they are getting harder to find ),new PPU brass goes for 95.00AUD+ 17.00 for postage per hundred, I will only have to neck size the brass .
Good value buy I reckon at 500Aud .
I have a Lithgow factory sporter that I bought with out the magazine for 80 AUD so one will be donated for that rifle.

[Scharfschuetze]

Lithgow sporter? Sounds neat. Can you post a photo.

Oh yeah, back on topic. Nice purchase!

[BigEyeBob]

Lithgow sporter? Sounds neat. Can you post a photo.

Oh yeah, back on topic. Nice purchase!


It's a BSA made rifle (the one above) , I actually looked today for the first time and was surprised to discover its BSA made , not from the factory Lithgow Australia.
Funnily enough the copper who checked the serial for registration wrote it down as a Lithgow .

I have two Lithgow factory sporters , both in 303/25 , one is in parts under going a restoration , the other is due for restoration but is complete . Ill get some pics tomorrow and post soon.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Picked this up today , 1918 MkIII SMLE .
Has a "H" barrel , docked to 25" , trigger converted to single pull , Piers composite stock ,Weaver bridge mount and 1" rings .
Also accompanying it was a set of Lee Dies , 120 once fired PPU Brass and four extra magazines.
Its a nice light scrub rifle will be good for hogs and Sambar deer .

I have a Leupold 2x compact scope to fit to it.

It might be that it was used in some form of rapid-fire target shooting. But it looks like an extremely useful rifle, and there is plenty of shooting for which a 2x scope (or indeed my old steel 1.5x Weaver) is just fine.

But... You can make an extremely functional tree out of plastic, but wood has a certain something. There are one or two extremely good old threads on stocking the Lee-Enfields.

[justashooter]

The magazines sell for 80-110AUD here .

prolly because *******s are hoarding them thinking that they are AR15 magazines. you occasionally see that happening with young wannabe kids here in USA, too. the enfield magazine was never intended to be swapped in and out loaded. no soldier in uniform was ever issued more than one magazine with an SMLE of any kind. they were issued ammunition on chargers that are charged thru the receiver guide. the magazine was made as separable because it was cheaper to manufacture them that way out of junk sheet metal, just like the rest of the junk metal these guns are made of

[BigEyeBob]

prolly because *******s are hoarding them thinking that they are AR15 magazines. you occasionally see that happening with young wannabe kids here in USA, too. the enfield magazine was never intended to be swapped in and out loaded. no soldier in uniform was ever issued more than one magazine with an SMLE of any kind. they were issued ammunition on chargers that are charged thru the receiver guide. the magazine was made as separable because it was cheaper to manufacture them that way out of junk sheet metal, just like the rest of the junk metal these guns are made of




Thanks for your input .

[justashooter]

Don't worry, Bob, I love the Smellies too. My favourite is a sporterized Mk5. it sits right next to a Ross 1905 sporter. We were lucky here in the States last fall(or was it fall of 2014?). A load of boxer primed Greek surplus came in with HXP 1970's headstamps and was sold for about 20 cents a piece as "grade B", which looked damned new to me. This was the first decent 303 we have had in a decade or more. Needless to say those in the know bought deep.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

prolly because *******s are hoarding them thinking that they are AR15 magazines. you occasionally see that happening with young wannabe kids here in USA, too. the enfield magazine was never intended to be swapped in and out loaded. no soldier in uniform was ever issued more than one magazine with an SMLE of any kind. they were issued ammunition on chargers that are charged thru the receiver guide. the magazine was made as separable because it was cheaper to manufacture them that way out of junk sheet metal, just like the rest of the junk metal these guns are made of

I'm sure we all value your opinion as it deserves. The original design which came from James Paris Lee and became the Lee-Metford, had a single column magazine. Having a central box magazine of any kind was the main item Lee had patented, and the agreement with the British government was that $200,000 of his $250,000 royalties were to be paid on the basis of $0.50 per magazine. I don't know for sure that interchangeable magazines were never used with the Lee-Metford, which was what Lee intended, but if they were, it was exceptional.

No chargers were used with the Lee-Metford or, for some years, with the double-column Lee-Enfield version, which was entirely a British development. But the double-column magazine was prone to lose cartridges if carelessly handled. I don't know whether it would have been practical to use a ten-shot box-magazine with the cartridges held in place by the receiver rails, but I can think of two reasons to keep it the way it was. A magazine which gave trouble could instantly be changed for another. It may also be that they were contractually bound to keep up the arrangement with Lee, or just felt they should. It was an age of innovation, in which nation couldn't afford to have the inventors stop showing up.

[Scharfschuetze]

Many of the earlier marks of the Lee-Metfords/Enfields actually had a small chain securing the magazine to the rifle's trigger guard. I guess Her Majesty's Ordnance Corps was dead set against changing magazines.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

Many of the earlier marks of the Lee-Metfords/Enfields actually had a small chain securing the magazine to the rifle's trigger guard. I guess Her Majesty's Ordnance Corps was dead set against changing magazines.

Yes indeed, and anywhere near the Northwest Frontier of India that loop was sometimes used to chain the rifle at night, to a rifle rack in barracks or the soldier's wrist in camp. Rifle-thief was an honoured profession, with the huge sums a modern rifle could fetch on the Border, and though the determined operator might still get one, in a fashion considered no more than robust by Border standards, he wouldn't get away with an armful.

[BigEyeBob]

I think the chain was more to stop the magazine being dropped in the bottom of a trench and filled with mud or lost in the quagmire.