But you’d never think it watching Get Smart.]
"Missed it by this much, sweetheart!"
Posted on 01/07/2019 3:19:56 AM PST by gattaca
This I did not know; thank you. Rest In Peace, James Doohan, and thank you for making the most of your God-given talents.
Holy cow. Add this to the long list of things I didn’t know.
Way to go Scotty!
Lots of Canadian heroes on Juno Beach that day.
It was a different Canada back then.
But you’d never think it watching Get Smart.]
"Missed it by this much, sweetheart!"
They went to acting schools on the GI Bill.
If you want to see an interesting story look up Russel Johnson, the Professer from Gilligan’s Island.
1. The Enfield bolt cocks on closing, which makes rapid fire unhandy, to say the least. I too own a No. I Mk 3, and a genuine Jungle Carbine and they are not fast, even compared to other bolt-action rifles.
2. And most importantly, our luckless future Star Fleet Chief Engineer would have fallen straight down and out of the way of the other shots on the first hit by a .303. There is no flingin' way any human being would stay standing after one hit. Whatever hit him was full-auto and pistol caliber, to get five rounds into him before he collapsed.
I should know a bit about these things, since I spent about 17 months shooting and hitting other people and then getting hit myself.
The Lee–Enfield rifle was derived from the earlier Lee–Metford, a mechanically similar black-powder rifle, which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system that had a barrel featuring rifling designed by William Ellis Metford. The Lee action cocked the striker on the closing stroke of the bolt, making the initial opening much faster and easier compared to the "cock on opening" (i.e., the firing pin cocks upon opening the bolt) of the Mauser Gewehr 98 design. The bolt has a relatively short bolt throw and features rear-mounted lugs and the bolt operating handle places the bolt knob just rearwards of the trigger at a favourable ergonomic position close to the operator's hand. The action features helical locking surfaces (the technical term is interrupted threading). This means that final head space is not achieved until the bolt handle is turned down all the way. The British probably used helical locking lugs to allow for chambering imperfect or dirty ammunition and that the closing cam action is distributed over the entire mating faces of both bolt and receiver lugs. This is one reason the bolt closure feels smooth. The rifle was also equipped with a detachable sheet-steel, 10-round, double-column magazine, a very modern development in its day. Originally, the concept of a detachable magazine was opposed in some British Army circles, as some feared that the private soldier might be likely to lose the magazine during field campaigns. Early models of the Lee–Metford and Lee–Enfield even used a short length of chain to secure the magazine to the rifle.[10] To further facilitate rapid aimed fire the rifle can be cycled by most riflemen without loss of sight picture.These design features facilitate rapid cycling and fire compared to other bolt-action designs like the Mauser.[5] The Lee bolt-action and 10-round magazine capacity enabled a well-trained rifleman to perform the "mad minute" firing 20 to 30 aimed rounds in 60 seconds, making the Lee–Enfield the fastest military bolt-action rifle of the day. The current world record for aimed bolt-action fire was set in 1914 by a musketry instructor in the British Army—Sergeant Instructor Snoxall—who placed 38 rounds into a 12-inch-wide (300 mm) target at 300 yards (270 m) in one minute.[11] Some straight-pull bolt-action rifles were thought faster, but lacked the simplicity, reliability, and generous magazine capacity of the Lee–Enfield. Several First World War accounts tell of British troops repelling German attackers who subsequently reported that they had encountered machine guns, when in fact it was simply a group of well-trained riflemen armed with SMLE Mk III rifles.[12][13]
It does indeed cock on closing (I also have one, and can confirm), but Sergeant Instructor Snoxall doesn't seem to have found it "unhandy". My only point of comparison for military bolt-action rifles is the Mosin-Nagant. I can manipulate it faster than a MN ...
As for getting hit in the leg ... Men have used the .303 to kill elephants.
I met him at a convention many years ago. Super nice guy.
I have found my No. 4 particularly quick and easy to fire. May just be me.
The very first high powered rifle I ever fired was that darn No. V Jungle Carbine and knocked me all over the place. The .303 Brit is a serious rifle!
I believe that the Mauser action is considerably smoother and more controllable in rapid fire - but I wouldn’t be able to challenge Sergeant Instructor Snoxall with anything less than my trusty M14!
The one thing that I’m sure of, is that the Enfield rifle in .303 would drop any man on Earth with one shot. Surviving five shots is unthinkable.
I’ll bet you’re excellent with your Enfield - and I’ll do my best not to annoy you..
You have a unique set of experiences - a CB cap? Bet there aren’t many people who can say that!
He played a Fed in The Satan Bug, a teevee adaptation of Alistair MacLean’s first-person thriller, starring George Maharis.
No, but I knew that. Love Don Adams. The off-camera antics between him and Don Rickles (Smart’s cousin, IIRC) are legendary: the original ROFLOL.
Got called to a medevac base in the IZ in 2005. Seems the IT guy that was support there was “no longer available”. Went in to where his office was and there was a card table and folding chair in the middle of the room with a laptop on it. Noticed keyboard keys on the floor. Got closer and the laptop, table and chair were all perforated. Between the table and chair was a mortar impact hole in the tile floor. I asked what happened. Was told the IT guy went out to take a smoke break and a round came in. Would have probably hit him on the head if he’d been there. He came in, took a look, went upstairs, packed his bags and was out on the next flight from BIAP.
I figure he’ll never stop smoking. “If I didn’t smoke I’d already be dead”.
Wow. Six times.
My grandfather was hit three times. Lost middle finger of left hand. Hit in the temple. Had a round travel the length of his left arm as he held his rifle: entered inside his wrist, exited outside his shoulder.
His new wife, who was occupied nearly dying of influenza in 1918, was sent a telegram that he was coming home minus an arm. Somehow the medics saved it after all.
He was the sole survivor of his artillery platoon. He survived by taking a foxhole from two German soldiers, whom he killed hand to hand, while being wounded.
She meanwhile was saved by having melted Vick’s Vapo-Rub poured down her throat when her breathing passageway became too swollen and blocked to breath.
Grandpa was the practical joker of the clan, often clowning around. I was stunned once to hear grandma say that WWI ruined him, seeing all his buddies blown to bits, and that he was never the same afterward. He must have been absolutely hilarious before the war.
I do know he would not talk about it. It took years of my childish needling just to see his scars (the long ones on his arm), and the Luger P08 he took from one of the Germans in the foxhole.
He was the son of German immigrants (you know, the legal kind), but he was all American.
ABSOLUTELY - Two of the best ever. I saw Rickles in his prime, in Vegas. I was in grade school, and we looked around and, other than my siblings, no one else was in grade school, or junior high, or probably high school.
We quickly found out why. I don’t remember much, but I’ll never forget just how hard the audience was laughing, it was INCREDIBLE. Talk about getting one’s money’s worth!
Like many comedians and vocalists (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra), Rickles could really act, too. He was excellent in Kelly’s Heroes.
If I had entertained any such plans, I have been disabused of the notion.
I am a lot of things, but I am not “.303 proof”.
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