Rifle No1. Mk3

British?

This rifle has a long and colorful history in British service. The "Lee" in its name is for James Paris Lee, a Scottish-born American who patented the basic design of this action in 1879. "Enfield" derives from the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock in England, where for many years most military development work was done on arms later adopted by Great Britain.

Briefly, Lee submitted his design in the English 1887 rifle trials, where it performed best and was accepted. Enfield made some modifications, resulting in the Lee-Metford Magazine Rifle Mark I of 1888. This rifle used Metford's segmental, shallow-land rifling, and was designed for the original .303 British loading, which used a compressed charge of black powder. With the introduction of Cordite (a smokeless powder, see section on .303 British ctge. for more info) a few years later, the Metford barrels soon proved impractical, for the highly corrosive Cordite destroyed their shallow grooves in short order. Enfield rifling - actually another Metford design, but very similar to today's standard rifling - offered much deeper, somewhat wider, lands to the hot powder gases, and barrel life was considerably extended. Various improvements and modifications followed, leading to the first true Lee-Enfield, which was introduced in 1895.

This was followed by other changes, modifications and mark designations every few years or so until the Mark III was adopted in 1906, as the Short magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) No1 MkIII.

The No1 MkIII rifle weighs about 8.9 lbs., has a 25.2" barrel and is 44.8" over-all. It has a full-length fore-end and the rear sight is mounted on the barrel.

The No4 MkI rifle weighs about 8.6 lbs., has a 25.2" barrel and is 44.4" over-all. Its fore-end extends nearly to the muzzle, and the rear sight is mounted on the receiver bridge. It was adopted in 1941.

The No5 MkI "Jungle Carbine" weighs about 7.2 lbs., has a 20.5" barrel, and is 39.1" over-all. It has a short, sporter-type fore-end, a funnel-like flash hider on the muzzle, and a modified buttstock with a somewhat dubious "recoil pad", but is otherwise identical to the No4 rifle. It was introduced in 1941.

All Lee-Enfields were discontinued in 1954.

In England, Canada, and Australia, the Lee-Enfield has long been popular for hunting and competitive target shooting. In recent years, some Lee-Enfield No4s have been converted (successfully!) to 7.62 NATO (.308 Winchester). In fact, for a time Britain issued these converted No4s as sniper rifles! The typical conversion consists of rebarrelling, replacing (or modifying) the magazine, extractor, ejector, and clip-slot adaptor. These rifles occasionally appear in Shotgun News (in the classified ads), and normally sell for $600 or more, as they are scarce in this country. The British consider this a safe conversion, and it probably is, but since the original .303 British cartridge is not that far, ballistically, behind a .308, there seems little point in going to all the trouble. If you want a .308, you're probably much better off starting with some rifle other than a Lee-Enfield!

Thanks again for the info!