I came into this rifle from an older gentleman that I would talk with a couple times a week. His wife's health took a turn and they were moving to Florida so live with their son/daughter. We often talked about guns, and he said he wanted me to have it. I insisted that he take something for it and he relented after I shoved $200 in his shirt pocket.

Finally had a chance to shoot it today. Previously, I had to adjust the magazine to get it to feed (it's still iffy on the last round). Not knowing what its history is, I strapped it to a sled and used twine to fire the first shot. After inspecting it and seeing no issues, I loaded up two clips (edit: whoops! Chargers!), fed them in, sat at the picnic table and shot off 10 rounds.

Loaded the clips low/high/low/high/low, and managed rim lock trying to feed the first round. Pushed the rounds down and they settled I guess, cuz no more issues. I wasn't 100% sure how to align the sights, so I just centered the top of the front sight post in the middle of the peep sight circle and hoped for the best.

The first shot surprised me with how much recoil hit my shoulder. So of course I threw the second shot and knew it as soon as I pulled the trigger. But I was shooting at 50 yards and couldn't see the results, hell I didn't know if it was sighted in ever.

I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised at the results at 50 yards:


Since I was resting on my elbows bent over a picnic table, I was in between sitting and prone and it beat the hell out of my shoulder (not the clavicle, the coracoid process). Will definitely need to adjust where I rest it or get some padding between me and the butt of the rifle.

Anyway it was really cool shooting an example of history. Unfortunately, my reactions to the recoil kept one of my buddies from trying it (he's had shoulder surgery before).

Seriously, these rifles were carried and shot in combat by real men...many of the ripe old age of 17-20!

Shooting my No.4 Mk I(T), I know it! I cut my teeth at around 8 years old with a bolt action Winchester Model 70 .30-06...when I went into the Army, shooting the M-16 was like shooting nothing.

But nothing beats having your shoulder beaten by a classic weapon of wood and steel....

the fact is... is that with that rounded buttplate  it is a terrible recoil enhancer and I rarely get through 50 rounds without rediscovering my recoil flinch... OTOH, my 1917 enfield rechambered to 300 Win. Mag. is a 3 to 5 round proposition only... That smacks your shoulder with authority, not to mention the muzzle blast!

You must be right about that buttplate. My other bolty is a Ruger American in .30-06. Sure, I've put an extra thick limbsaver pad on it, but it never really caused any pain. I figure the .303 and .30-06 are pretty comparable and the heavy No4 would soak up the recoil better than a lightweight RAR. Boy was I wrong! It's like it was focused!

I think it has to do with how people are built.   The Enfield is a soft shooting rifle for me.  It is comparable to the 30-40 Krag when I shoot it.

The Mosin and K98 beat the crap out of my shoulder.

After my Rotor Cuff surgery I am pretty much limited to 5.56 anyway.

I always feel more felt recoil when sitting at the bench with all my rifles. If your range only allows that there are some nicer recoil shields that you can wear that really help.

Have fun with it!

Agreed; I'd place my No.4 Mk.1* at similar to my M1, maybe slightly above just because the recoil isn't spread out in time by the action, and noticeably below my 03A3, which itself is slightly below a buddy's Yugo Mauser and 91/30--I find both of those actively unpleasant, just barely this side of painful with milsurp ammo, even from standing.

While I have shot tons of ammo out of lots of bolt actions, I would rate the .303 as pretty easy on the shoulder when properly mounted. Yes bench shooting accentuates recoil. But if you are used to 223 you probably did not have the rifle mounted to your shoulder properly.
I believe the rear sight in the folded down position ( so called battle sight) is designed for a 300 yard zero. Raising the leaf can be adjusted for various yardage.
Nice looking rifle- who made it? There were British Canadian and US made #4’s and generally the Canadian and American rifles are considered the best shooters

Minor point but in n the world wars the Brits used more older men percentage wise than we did.   You could be an old duffer and still see combat with them.  Only the real old were in the home gaurd

It ought be like the krag.  You can use .303 brass loading the krag with a slightly short neck.

I am dealing with what may be frozen shoulder now myself.  I thought it was my old shoulder injury coming back.   It sucks.  I cannot shoot much rifle as just pressing the butt to my shoulder hurts and I am having a hard time shooting even a pistol.  I am bending my neck down to the sightline because I cannot lift my arm that high.  Getting old isn’t for wimps.

It's a '44 Long Branch.



A lots been made of the recoil in this thread, which was something I'd noticed, but wasn't meant to be my focus. I was more surprised that I could get a decent group, even if only at 50 yards, because 1) I had no idea how or if it was zeroed in its previous life and 2) it wasn't easy for me to be sure I was getting a repeatable sight image with that huge aperture (and I'm cross dominant so iron rifle sights are always a weakness for me). I wasn't sure I was even going to be on paper, much less dance around the bull. Im sure the rifle would group better with a more competent shooter behind it.

This was from my very first ever range trip with my No 4 Mk II... at 200 yards, on sandbags.

I like to think of it as a 2-round group with an extra flyer

Attached File


Still, I was very impressed for never having touched the sights or anything.

Very nice for 200!  I suspect my results would look like a shotgun. I'd really like to try a scope to see what the rifle could do without my poor iron sighting, but no way am I gonna mod a 1944 rifle.

Anyone else got some nice results to share?

Handloads at 100yd.  Right at 2".

Attached File

I might be wrong but I think one of the issues with real precision shooting with the Enfield  is the rear locking lugs.

They are accurate but not as accurate as a Mauser type action.

Fun rifle, I have one as well.

Find a B27 or some kind of silhouette and bang away at it as fast as you can at 100 yards.  The results are interesting.

For real recoil fun in the SMLE family - get a jungle carbine.

There's a subway stop at Longbranch in Toronto. The armory is long gone though but there a couple remnants around the property.

http://www.pbase.com/mrclark/long_branch_factory