Posted on 11/04/2009 2:08:16 PM PST by HuntsvilleTxVeteran
It was such a deal though.
As I understand it the sniper rifles were manufactured by the usual suspects but accurized by Holland and Holland and other British makers.
Do yourself a favor and turn the volume up! :-)
Sniping standard for awhile also.
Bolt action record: In 1914 Sergeant Instructor Snoxall put 38 hits onto a 12" target at 300 yards in 1 minute.
"Almost" is a relative term, but if you saw the Brit make Gunny Ermey look embarassed, you'd know what I mean.
He probably could have beaten Ermey in spite of the Garand.
The fastest and smoothest bolt action rifle every made. The Enfield was a great rifle. If it is in good condition and the person doesn’t want an arm and a leg, they are good buys. The action was so easy to work and the British soldiers of WWI received certain training on using the action that in some instances when the Germans went against British troops they thought they were facing machine gun fire when in reality they were up against bolt action rifles. A great classic and worth 200 or so dollars if in good shape.
WARNING! I bought one of these back in the late ‘50’s as my second deer rifle, used it for a few years, and found out that quite a number of them were shipped into this country with the rifles in one crate and the bolts in another. When they were re-assembled, they did not match them, just grabbed a bolt, and stuck it in a rifle. If you buy one of these, take it to a gunsmith and have him check the headspace. Some of these weapons have excessive headspace in the chamber because of the mismatching, and can cause big problems extracting fired cases, not to mention the danger from possible blowouts. It’s a good strong action, but the headspace needs to be checked on all of them. Good luck with it. A good gunshop should have a headspace gauge.
Obviously Ermey was successful in allowing the Brit to frame what many consider to the be pinnacle of British firearm technology. ;-)
I think the SMLE could in some sense be called an American invention. James Paris Lee was born in Scotland but became an American and was American when he designed the original rifle.
Although the design went through a lot of development, one has only to look at one of the American Lee Navy rifles to see that it was basically the same gun from the very start.
BTW, the U.S. Marines used them very effectively in the Boxer conflict when the embassies of the European nations plus Japan were besieged in Peking.
He told me that the biggest fun was getting the right ammo for them. They were made over such a long period that the bullet powder combo for one was horrible for the other. He had one that initially started out shooting 3 foot groups at a hundred yards. After doing some research, he realized that it had never been rebuilt and was designed to shoot cordite. After, a lot of trial and error, he got that rifle to shoot 2 inch groups (from a rest) at a 100 yards
Below is a cut and paste from Wikipedia:
Before World War I developed, the British Empire realized that its battle rifle, the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) was already nearly obsolete. Compared to the German Mausers or US 1903 Springfield, the SMLE's .303 rimmed cartridge, originally a black powder cartridge, was underpowered. Additionally, the rear locking, dual lug design in the SMLE caused receiver stretching which required ever larger replacement bolt heads to be installed over the service life of the arm, and was not ideal for accuracy at shorter combat ranges. Great Britain began development of a new rifle and cartridge copying many of the features of the Mauser system. This development included a front locking, dual lug bolt action with Mauser type claw extractor as well as a new, powerful rimless cartridge of .276 caliber. However, the onset of World War I came too quickly for the UK to put it into production.
As it entered World War I, the UK had an urgent need for rifles and contracts for the new rifle were placed with arms companies in the United States. They decided to ask these companies to produce the new rifle design in the old .303 caliber for logistic commonality. The new rifle was termed the "Pattern 14." In the case of the P14 rifle, Winchester and Remington were selected. A third plant, a subsidiary of Remington, was tooled up at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, PA. Thus three variations of the P14 and M1917 exist, labeled "Winchester," "Remington" and "Eddystone."
When the U.S. entered the war, it had a similar extreme need for rifles. Rather than re-tool the factories to produce the standard US rifle, the M1903 Springfield, it was realised that it would be much quicker to adapt the British design for the US .30-06 cartridge, for which it was well-suited. Accordingly the factories, under the close supervision of the US Army Ordnance Department, altered the design for caliber .30-06. Winchester produced the rifle at their New Haven, Connecticut plant and Remington at their main facility at Ilion, New York and at another plant in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. The M1917 Bayonet was also produced and used on several other small arms. Winchester produced 545,511 rifles; Remington about 545,541 and Eddystone 1,181,908.
I had a pattern 14 Enfield made by Winchester. It looked just about identical to the 1917 U.S. Enfield except of course for the caliber.
I think I read somewhere that these actions are or were in great demand to be converted to 45-70 since they were made for a rimmed cartridge. I might be wrong in the caliber, maybe it is some other rimmed cartridge but the 45-70 sticks in my mind.
Since the 45-70 is much fatter than the .303 it might require a lot of work to convert.
I had a terrible fever for this 45-70 rifle a few months back.
It's the slickest action I've ever worked . . . and I have way too many bolt action rifles hanging around the joint.
My husband prefers the FN-FAL, certainly his rate of fire is higher, but my rifle is cooler. Really. :-0D
I have my own set of headspace gauges - go, no go, and field. They aren't expensive.
One of my "cool" rifles that I've been playing with lately is the Remington VTR in .308. I'm looking at getting a Sheppard scope for it. Have you had any experience with them?
Well made rifle.
I have a “jungle carbine” built on the same receiver; just has a shorter barrel and stock.
Shortest time in-service of ANY British military arm ever made . . . .
I standardized on .357/.38 sp because I was able to find somebody selling two Ruger Vaqueros in that caliber very cheap . . . got a little Rossi Win '92 to match. Light and handy and of course zero recoil in that caliber.
We also cast and load our own Cowboy loads . . . we don't go so far as to use mouse f**t loads like so many 'gamers' do, in fact hubby loads his with considerable punch, but given the strict velocity rules we just roll our own.
We really need to get out of the suburbs, our neighbors already thought we were crazy, what with the dog agility equipment, the retriever blinds and wingers, and the horse jumps being constructed in the front yard . . . but when we got out the turkey fryer and started melting wheelweights in an old bar sink in the driveway . . . .
It is amazing how much lead you can get downrange and how quickly, with enough practice, even in the old single action revolvers and lever action rifles.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
