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Anyone on here own / shoot one ? Have always admired them - particularly the jungle version. But no real reason to own one (yet).


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Many started their shooting career with a SMLE 303 because of the low prices they sold for. Some shot pretty good while others were pretty much used up.Cant count how many I've had over the years. I have a #4 Mk 1 that came to me with a new barrel and a .311 bore. It shoots way better than many new rifles. Never hurts to have a good 303 around

Agree with Snowman. Many of us Canadians started out with a surplus Enfield in .303. Lots of excellent "sporterized" Enfields out there if you do a bit of looking, and they are cheap to buy. Hardly anyone wants them these days and the newer generations are too far removed from them to even give them a glance.

I saw an excellent Enfield just a few days ago. It had been restocked and was in pristine condition. Could have picked it up for $400 CDN.

I always fancied the No. 5 Jungle Carbine too until I borrowed one...

Staggering recoil and muzzle flash, plus wandering Zeros.
Since the Pistol ban in the UK lots of guys use them. Have a look for LERA - Lee Enfield Rifle Association - they know everything!

I remain happy with my .300 Savage 99.

HB

I used to have a Lee Enfield rifle about 45 years ago that had been somewhat sporterized, though I don't remember the model. It had an aperture two way sight, one way for closer range, and flipped the other way was for longer range. I outshot my brother with his scoped 30/06 shooting 400 yards, but I had young eyes back then. I loved that rifle but didn't reload when I owned it. I unknowingly bought old ammo that had corrosive primers and though I cleaned the gun, I didn't neutralize the acid in the barrel from those primers and the barrel was horribly pitted from them.

I had one when I was a teenager. Way back in time in SE Georgia. Bought it in a surplus store in Jacksonville Florida for $20.

Trimmed the stock, cut the barrel to 18", put on a Williams front ramp & sight. Whittled on the stock.

Used it in the Georgia and Florida swamps (I lived close to the state line boundary on the coast). Those 215 grain factory loads were devastating on the wild hog population!!!

A true pickup gun. It lived behind the seat in my '51 Chevy pickup.

Gave it to my cousin when I was drafted. Wish I had it now!!

Got my first one (a #4MK1) in 1967 for $24; you could just order them directly through the mail then. Have owned at least 25 of them since, both #1s and #4s. .
Best bolt action battle rifle ever built. Yes, avoid the jungle carbines; they were made for carrying, not shooting. Come on over and I'll let you shoot some.

quote:

A true pickup gun. It lived behind the seat in my '51 Chevy pickup.

Gave it to my cousin when I was drafted. Wish I had it now!!

And the 51 Pick-up! :-)

I've had dozens of them over the yrs. Most all were No1MkIII SMLE.
But also Long Lee Enfields and Lee Metfords.
I only had 2 #5's and 2 #4 rifles.
I never had much interest in the latter 2 for some reason.

The only ones I still have are a Long Lee Charger Loading Lee Enfield (CLLE).
A BSA commercial rifle made sometime 1907 when the solid charger bridge came out ,,to 1914 when BSA stopped commercial production/availability of that model.
Also a SMLE MkI*
This also a Commercial BSA made rifle.
The MKI* was made 1904, 05 & 06 in military form. It used the siding charger guide mounted on the bolt head.
The above mentioned solid charger guide came in 1907 resulting in the MkIII designation.
These commercial BSA MkI* rifles were also cataloged till 1914.

A yet to be completed restoration Military 1904 dated MKI* rests awaiting some work as does another dated 1906 which really needs some parts and work.
The rear handguards worth gold were intact so that was a blessing on both.

A No2MkI .22 training rifle SMLE made on a 1917 Enfield mfg rifle best I can read of the scrubbed markings rounds out the mix. FTR'd in 1956 it is a real shooter. Then someone cut the forend back to the front band.
..More work to do...

My latest load that shoots beautifully in the first 2 rifles is FMJ .310d AK bullets
12gr RedDot,,'78HXP brass, CCI LRM primer.
Pussycat load on your shoulder, but very accurate and I use the standard 100yrd sight setting at 50m. It drops about 1 1/2 at 100m.
Those 2 rifles are targeted for the early Mk6 ammo, so a MkIII SMLE rear sight which is set up for the lighter Mk7 ammo would likely need some adjustment for zero.

Being Australian, if you haven't had at least several 303's, there's something wrong with you as a commonwealth country it was our military issue for years so pretty much everyone I know started with a " Smellie "...our generic term for 303's.

Roger

Yes. I still have my dad's a No. 4 Long branch. I killed my first deer with it.

During the 1950s here, SMLEs were the obvious base for an affordable centrefire, usually a .303/.25 or .270.

The smarties would get the same calibres on a Mauser, P14 or M17 action, and this was advised if you wanted a .303/.22, which could be hot and contentious.

The New South Welshmen couldn't have a rifle in .303 (or any other military calibre), though, so someone shortened the case and called it the 7.7x54.

Other calibres like 250-3000, 257 Roberts and 270W were available, of course, but their rifles, ammo and powders other than 4740 were much dearer.

By the time I became elligible to get a 'high-power' licence in 1969, Smellies were old hat. All I wanted were FN Mausers, Husqvarnas and Sakos.

Just another outdated iron sighted military bolt action rifle.

Useful when they came out. Great buys when you could get them cheap to play with.

But far surpassed by modern rifles.

The Marines in my unit got me my No 4 when I got out. It is beautiful. Accurate with ammo it likes and when the shooter hasn't had too much coffee. I took it out to shoot it at the 300 yard range a few weeks ago and was ringing steel without any trouble. What a great rifle, and fun to shoot with the irons.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Just another outdated iron sighted military bolt action rifle.

Useful when they came out. Great buys when you could get them cheap to play with.

But far surpassed by modern rifles.

You're obviously a gun snob.

Grizz

Jungle Carbine looks cool, but no fun to shoot

I do have a no4mk1. I enjoy the .303 British for what it is

Lee Speed: Not the early ones with the Metford Rifling but later commercial rifles built by BSA and Regulated for the Mk VII bullet ie post 1910. Example of this rifle used in the Ghost and the Darkness.

A pair of sporting 303's
The Mauser is rare
Originally commissioned for Rigby by Mauser with a special Short intermediate action with slanted magazine box.

What makes this specimen very rare is it never went to England so no British Proofs. According to Speed few were kept back for destructive testing, while some of these survived making them rare; less than 100 reported to exist. The caliber marked in Metric

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams1:

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Just another outdated iron sighted military bolt action rifle.

Useful when they came out. Great buys when you could get them cheap to play with.

But far surpassed by modern rifles.

You're obviously a gun snob.

Grizz

More of a gun realist.

Wanting to know what a good smelly could do...
I got a close tolerance reamer made, fitted a new P14 barrel to it. Put a single stage trigger in, sporter stock and scoped. I was amazed at how well the brass lasts, was my first reaction. Full power loads and brass still good at 6-8 firings.
Accuracy, with loads it likes, is as good as any other sporter. A strong preference for Speer 180's in my rifle.
Alf, I have a BSA sporter that looks very much like your lee speed. The bore was shit, so it just came back from being re-bored to 375, to become a 375 2 1/2" It will get used when the black bears hit the cornfields next year.

I believe no collection can be complete without making space for a 303. Simply because of it's all important role as vehicle for the transition from BP to Nitro for the British empire.

quote:

Wanting to know what a good smelly could do...
I got a close tolerance reamer made, fitted a new P14 barrel to it. Put a single stage trigger in, sporter stock and scoped. I was amazed at how well the brass lasts, was my first reaction. Full power loads and brass still good at 6-8 firings.
Accuracy, with loads it likes, is as good as any other sporter.

After all that work is not a military issued rifle any more.

Put enough money into about anything it is a totally different animal.

quote:

I got a close tolerance reamer made, fitted a new P14 barrel to it. Put a single stage trigger in, sporter stock and scoped. I was amazed at how well the brass lasts, was my first reaction. Full power loads and brass still good at 6-8 firings.
Accuracy, with loads it likes, is as good as any other sporter. A strong preference for Speer 180's in my rifle.

Good for you! Sounds like you enjoyed sporting it and enjoy the rifle.

Heaps of interesting info on this thread - thanks to everyone for stories and sharing!

Beats the heck out of having just one efficient modern synthetic stocked stainless rifle in the safe

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I agree Charlie. I have plenty of modern rifles.
But I have as much fun with projects as with anything off the rack. A carcano, barreled to 35 rem and a stripper clip of spitzer bullets, gets taken out to shoot as quick as a modern off the rack rifle.

Mauser rifles chambered in .303 were not uncommon back before WW2. .303 was so cheap they sold it by weight, and Mauser rifles had more cachet, so if you were serious shooter and shot enough, thats what some people used to do. They used to alter the mag so it would feed the rimmed cases. (But mostly the SMLE ruled.)

It was the same around in some other parts of the Commonwealth, Mausers in .303 were common in East Africa/Kenya around WW1.

Its a Lee Enfield: an Enfield is what Americans call it for some reason. I dont know why. An Enfield is a muzzleloading rifle.
In NZ and Australia it was more commonly just called a .303.

As for it being an outdated military rifle...well, so?
Anyway - nearly all of these rifles have spent decades more of their lives hunting than they ever did in military service. Their life as hunting rifles is much more interesting to me. And there is nothing wrong with an old hunting rifles. I like old rifles.
They have been hunting red deer in New Zealand, elephants and lions in Africa, deer and bear in North America, crocodiles and buffalo in Australia. A .303 is a big game rifle.

(I have got one sporterised .303 left, and I can still just shoot it even with old eyes. It has a bore like new and it shoots very well with Speer 180 grain round noses. Just as well as a new modern rifle actually.)

Carlsen Highway: I respectfully disagree on your assertions re the Mauser 303 being common.

First and foremost it has been established that the number of original Mauser Sporting rifles is finite. There is a number 1 and a number "last" reported to be around 127,000 only making it as as a brand one of the less numerous commercial rifles built.

Secondly and this is important is that Mauser's relationship with the English gun trade was responsible responsible not only for saving Mauser from bankruptcy but it also influenced design of action sizes.

In this regard Mauser and Rigby had a exclusive relationship that lasted for more than a decade and it was at the behest of John Rigby that the 303 was chambered in what has become known as the Short Intermediate action rifle.

These were by all accounts rare as not many were built. ( as per Speed's research )

As to the Specimens that were not delivered to Rigby ie without British Proofs they are rarer still and few survived testing.

As a collector I can attest that if a caliber (as in cartridge type) was originally numerous then today one would expect find that more easily than those that were made in small numbers. Some so few that Collectors actually know of each and every one built with their serial numbers dates of original sale and to whom ; example the 500 Jeffery.

Finally we have the written recollections of many "writer Hunters" of yesteryear and what they used on what and where. While it is true that pre WW1 the 303 was the 2nd most used cal ( cartridge) after the 6.5 Mannlicher Rimmed and up to WW2 the 3rd most used caliber after the 30-06 as number one, the 6.5 and number 2. Only the 303 and 30 US ( 30-06 ) were chambered in limited number by Mauser.

I, too , have had a dozen or more over the years. The most accurate was a post-war No. 4 Mk. 1 with the wonderful graduated receiver sight and a perfect bore. With good handloads it was about as accurate as the Mosin/Finn SAKO M39 with excellent bore. These two rifles and the Swiss K-31 gave me the best performance of any of the military surplus rifles that I have owned over the years -- better even than the Swede Mauser 96s that were right behind them.
There is nothing at all wrong -- ever -- with getting to know a bolt action battle rifle from one of the two great wars of the last century.

Alf, would the .303 mauser action be the same as the Yugo intermediate action size?

No they are not the same:

Mauser made 3 action sizes in Intermediate for Rigby.

1. The Short intermediate SH = 7.68 inches
BL = 6.16
AL = 8.56
for the 303

2. Reduced intermediate SH = 7.87
BL = 6.16
AL = 8.56
For 9x57

3. Normal intermediate for the 7x57
SH = 7.87
BL = 6.16
AL = 8.75
The difference between the Reduced an normal is the Size of the ring
Reduced = 1.685 and Normal = range between 1.880 to 1.765

Now the yugo intermediate has SH of 7.62
AL of 8.5
large ring

The yugo is a odd duck in that its a large ring mauser short action

Speed gives a good account of the Sporting intermediate action dimensions and differences in his second book.

Also interesting the relationship between Mauser and Steel merchants Jonas and Colver of Sheffield in England. England supplied Mauser with steel for their rifles only to have them used against them (The British) in WW1, the same steel was used by Mauser for rifles for WW2 !