Posted: 3/18/2005 2:19:40 PM EDT
| btt |
| I love my Enfields too although ammo is getting real hard to get for them. coincidentally I was shooting mine today, did a 5 shot 3" group at 200 yards with Iron sights and 50 year old milsurp ammo. Mine is a #4 mk1 which has a longer sight radius than a #1 mk111. |
Yup. Prepare to be AMAZED. But for the substitution of smokeless powder, an Enfield is (somebody smarter than me chime in here) 110 year old technology. You can take that puppy, with those tiny sights, off a bench without a rest, and lob bullets into a pie plate at 200 meters all day long. It amazes me every time I shoot mine. Good price. They have fluctuated between $80 - $130 for about 20 years, and I believe the intrinsic value of the weapon is comparable to that of Rem 700 - i.e., it has comparable capabilities - and may have killed Nazis and MauMaus on top of it! |
I dont know about "fearing" them more than another gun per se, but I have heard that they were used with great effectiveness. |
Sort of correct. The Afghans have a really interesting homegrown weapons duplication market. Most of the Enfields they used against the Russians were home-built copies. The Enfield is the finest goddamn BATTLE rifle invented until God and Garand colluded on the M1. My only caution would be to have the headspace checked, and run any paint or unusual markings on the weapon by someone who knows SMLE's.. There are a LOT of them floating around the US that were painted or stamped as "drill purpose".. ie: unshootable but good enough to weigh a trainee's shoulder down with. I play war (ww1) with a gent who owns a SMLE with arabic writing engraved and painted into the stock. A Saudi friend told him (after years and hundreds of rounds) that the writing translated out to "Do not fire!". Now get yourself one of the 17" bayonets. The little pricker they stick on AR's and such simply doesn't compare, and she'll shoot better with it on. Never mind the canvas action cover you may see advertised, the backsides of the snaps will likely mar the wood finish. The rimmed cartriges must be loaded right in the mag or you will jam the thing up tighter than an Olsen Twin at Bike Week. Never load one with the rim behind the cartrige underneath. With stripper clips, load 'em with rims like this: _-_-_ alternating. Most available strippers are postware parkerized jobs that will desparately need some steel wool or a case tumbler to smooth up before they'll feed worth a damn. Oh yea, and P-08 webbing is fucking heavy when it's all loaded up  Most (uhh, 98%?)of the Jungle Carbines in the US are postwar hackjobs. I've only seen one real one in the flesh, though every one I've been handed has been billed as "the real thing" by the owner. The originals were known for a wandering zero and VERY stout recoil. Sorry.. Love my SMLE's, tend to run off at the mouth 
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According to the author of "Charlie Wilson's War," the CIA bought tens of thousands of milsurp Enfields in the late 70s and 80s and gave them to the Muhajidin. Millions of rounds of .303 ammo were found in Yugoslavia and supplied to the Afghans. I have seen the hand-made copies of Old Smelly. They are impressive in spite of the poor spelling and crude fake proofmarks. For the most part, the bolts are not copied, but rather reused time and time again. The Afghans stick with the SMLE even though the Empire mostly changed over to the No.4 Mk1 during WWII. Also, Smelly was made in Australia into the 50's and in India into the 1970s. |
My recollection of the issue was that in the wide-open distances of that country, the longer range of the .303 gave its user a significant advantage over someone with a 7.62X39. No doubt a 30-06 or an 8X57MM would have performed similarly. And a big +1 for checking the headspace. I had a total case head separation on a newly purchased (but very used) No. 4 last year. |
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While I was in Afghanistan last year, I saw a lot of captured weapons caches...Enfields were by far the second most common rifles we found (AK's first of course). Here's a pic of one of the weapons caches (yes I'm recycling it from the "beat up AR" thread) picture taken by me, sometime in May 2004, Oruzgan Province Afghanistan. |
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I'll second the stout recoil. I have a #4Mk1 and a #5 Jungle Carbine. The little one is louder and has a kick similar to an HK93 -- stout! Ammo is not cheap for .303, but reloading is very easy and less expensive. h.gif |
.308 Enfields can be a mixed bag. The .308 round runs higher pressures than the old .303 (biiiig surprise, the original .303 used a pill of compressed blackpowder for criminys sake), and the SMLE action isn't built to handle it. The Indians apparently ran two models of .308 SMLE, the 2a and the 2a(1). Model differences reportedly are that the (1)'s are made of a stronger steel to better withstand the pressure. The Brits made numerous sniper rifles on the No. 4 action in .308 with great success, and even the Ishys are known as wicked accurate rifles, but I don't think I'd be relying on precise Indian metallurgy for my safety margin. I won't say Ishapore never made a decent rifle, but I'd be quite sure in saying there is far more quality variation in their rifles than in comparable British (or even Lithgow Aussie) rifles. British made No. 4 Enfields in .308 are superb though.. I'd give my eyeteeth for a nice one. |