This is a very recent eBay purchase to go with others I've collected over the years.

One word caught my eye that I don't believe I had heard of before, that word is "obloquy" it apparently means strong public condemnation, and in this case the finger points to the SMLE according to this page in the P-H catalogue.

This is the first time I have seen in print anything that decries the SMLE, especially from a company that is actively selling them!

It's also very clear from what else is written that P-H hope to off load SMLE's with heavy barrels to the target rifle community, when in fact the images of the day show more No.4's being fired at Bisley and hardly an SMLE in sight!

Some 25 years ago a group of us used to shoot together and often found ourselves shooting next to a club from Birmingham who included retired P-H & BSA employees, despite the fact that few SMLE's were seen on he firing point during the big 1950's matches the retired guy from BSA told me they were still assembling them in the mid 1950's for local clubmen out of stored spares. 

 

The "American" sling, probably better known to most of us as the M1907 sling? 

This is the first official reference I've seen of it's use in service rifle "b" shooting, it's use in all things target rifle has in the past been seen as something contentious in the UK, in some cases people gong as far as to say with your arm in the sling loop is cheating! 

If and when the subject comes up again I can now quote chapter & verse that it is UK legal.

Fat Foresights; ironically these became "Streamlined" Foresights in later editions of the catalogue and something Britrifles and I have conversed about over the last year or so. 

I have a 0.070" which I'm debating to put on my rifle but will wait until I have a cataract sorted in the very near future, I may not need it after that! 

My understanding is the SMLE was preferred at long range (900 and 1000 yds) due to its compensating nature in which fast bullets left the muzzle at a lower angle of departure than slow bullets. But that came at the price of larger vertical dispersions at short range where the No. 4 was preferred. 

How I wish I had a full set of wide blade foresights! I had to resort to modifying a standard service foresight blade which I did by epoxying a thin sheet of brass to each side of the blade and filing to shape.  

Geoff, to answer this in the order you have written it: 

My first SMLE ever was built from new items in the 1990's. I was too wet behind the ears and actually believed the seller's patter; I subsequently found out that his story that these were built for Ireland and never used was grade A BS! 

Robin Fulton, (of that shop in Bisley camp) used an SMLE in 1958 to win the Queens Prize at 900 & 1000 but used his No.4 at 300, 500 & 600. I would suspect this was probably the last time we saw an SMLE in the Queens final??

From 1948 the Bisley bible just says the sling has to be attached to the rifle in two places and not wider that 2" inches for SR"b" matches; before 1948 there is a restriction on the length of the sling to 54 1/2" inches.  I think the modern term for this rule is called overreach! 

It just about allowed the use of a Bren Gun sling, much favoured in rifle teams of the Light Infantry regiments in the 1970's with the L1A1.

Fat Foresights...I've now taken to looking at foresights blades with a much sharper eye at arms fairs rather than walking past them as I used to.

Just to add fuel to the fire

When the SMLE came out originally, they were looked down on somewhat because of the "short barrel & shortened sight radius" compared to the old "Long Toms"!

When those were cut down for range rifles rules it was considered almost sacrilege!

I  constantly get picked on for having the M1907 sling on my SMLE's because "they were never ever used & so wrong and not P.C./ H.C. Thanks for the docs to refute that.

I also use them on the AR-15 SR.  I prefer the ones made from Biothane by Turner Saddlery. Never need conditioning and are not prone to slipping. 

The only Issue I have had with them is the original '03 & Garand rifles sling swivels are 2" closer together than Lee-Enfield ones. This makes getting the adjustments just right doesn't quite follow the USMC suggestions for hook placement.

I find that instead of #8 or #9 I use #3 or #4 to hook the long front strap, that seems to fix the problem.

Some shooters rig the sling so that the upper loop can be pulled down such that the hooks are tight against your bicep. Not necessary with the biothane sling, it’s quite “sticky”, I close the two keepers on my bicep. Makes it quicker to get into and out of the sling. 

Derek, they stamped "Regulated by Fultons" on a No.4 they built for me when I retired in 2016. 

I had to ask them to do it and if I'm honest it's not the best stamping as it had to be done twice, the current stamp is much smaller than those seen on SMLE's of the period. 

The sling "cheating" allegations all came about during discussions when I started to take an interest in how the newly formed Lee Enfield Rifle Association were making match conditions for various competitions. I was then the associations target rifle captain and the accusations came from a small blinkered section of the club, many of whom are now "brown bread". 

I was staggered to find that not even the NRA (UK) had proper guidance on what should, and shouldn't be allowed in historic shooting competitions.

Rather like a certain "captain" Mainwaring I inserted myself into a position of near authority to try and change things. 

Derek, you have raised a question which relates to the two different Service Rifle categories, SR(a) and SR(b).  SR(a) rules are essentially “as issued” service rifles and a sling was not permitted.  SR(b) allowed considerable leeway to “accurize” the rifle which included bedding the fore-end, packing hand guards, fitting aperture sights, use of a sling, wide (fat) blade foresights, etc. I believe the heavier barrel for the SMLE was only allowed for SR(b) shooting. 

Perhaps Mick knows when the SR(b) classification was introduced into the UK NRA competition rules? 

With a heavy sigh he trudged once again into his study to look through his extensive collection of Bisley Bibles... 

The earliest I can find mention of Service Rifle "b" is 1920; I don't have a 1919 bible which may push the introduction to SR"b" back a year to 1919.

The 1920 Bible shows: 

SR"a" which was "as issue"

SR"b" as described by Geoff above and officially abandoned in 1968 by the NRA in favour of what is now known as Target Rifle.

SR"c" Which is any rifle as defined in SR"a" but not restricted to SMLE's, the use of a sling, additional back sight and windage are allowed. 

(This class would allow the use of the Long Lee then known as the Territorial Rifle. Slings were not allowed to steady a rifle in SR"a")

SR"d" Any rifle in the foregoing classes provided it was fitted with magnifying or telescopic sights.

(By 1923 SR"c" has gone and been replaced by the term, "Sniping Rifle", during this period the sniping rifle in question would be the Pattern 14 which had replaced the SMLE with scope after the Great War.)

We both know I enjoy doing it Geoff! 

SR"c" is the interesting one for me; this also disappeared by 1923 and the reason has to be the dominance of the SMLE in both the regular and Territorial armies, although still popular by civilian marksmen and one assumes taken under the wing of SR"b" in 1923.   

Strangely Brown wrote: I wasn't sure which Forum to put this in? This is a very recent eBay purchase to go with others I've collected over the years.

Catalogues, old pams, etc are just the thing for professional scanning (and OCR and editing afterwards if one lacks a copy of of Adobe's Acrobat Pro) and sharing with the fraternity.

The local pro shop my architect wife uses for scanning old cadastral data from paper form to electronic charges $70/hr.  Which sounds like a lot until you see how fast their massive Canon scanners go through pages of books.

I finally got my hands on a full version of the Canadian pam for the C1 A2 FN FAL.  The tech who fiddled around to clean up the appearance of the yellowed paper before feeding it into the scanner did the job so fast the cost to me was $11 in total.

https://postimages.org/" rel="nofollow">

https://postimages.org/" rel="nofollow">

If I just wanted it for a keepsake or electronic reference, that would be good enough.  

However, like similar scanning of old reloading manuals in very worn condition, putting a few days of hobbyist's effort into cleaning up the scans, creating indexes etc will result in a finished result more enjoyable and usable, not to mention better for anyone wanting to actually print it off.

Anyways, scanning and preserving this old historical stuff for all interested people to see at places like Archive.org can be a bit of a labor of love.

Where else would I have hoped to find reloading data for my .35 Newton, when ammunition for it hasn't been manufactured since the 1920's?  Well, in a scanned reloading manual from the first years of Speer bullets!

Rick.

That image hosting site seems to require paid membership to VIEW from your links?

While we're on the topic what about those German eyepieces that have a combination iris & eyesight correction device. Are those considered "magnifying"?

Okay, thanks for that... I didn't know.  I've used the free version of it, not wanting to run into the same problem down the road that Geoff ran into - too many images uploaded here, preventing him from posting some new images until he deleted some of his older ones.

I may do further exploration of it, but for most of what I've used it for here so far, it serves the purpose of being explanatory in relation to what its posted with.

If they are, what about the diopter inserts for A.J. Parker and Parker-Hale eyepieces?

Strangely Brown wrote: Ironically Chaz this is what I see of your images in the UK.

Mick: At the risk of leaving people thinking my Conspiracy Theorist side has kicked in... do you get the same image and message if you log into this website and forum through a VPN that lets you set your location as being inside CONUS?

That might be above my paygrade Rick; it's too late over here for me to try but I'll look at it over the weekend. 

Fairly recently I think Chaz, it's probably down to my laptop settings.

Maybe not!  I purged my files on here & went to my "Imgur" a/c. 

Watch out for the diameter of them if you do.

I had serious issues getting it to clear the bolt handle for firing & even more removing the bolt for cleaning.

The folding AGP/BSA No9W sight & its adapter is the best in many ways as it can simply be folded out of the way.

https://cornellpubs.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq3RPEOc5N5SugQr_MnPvzOzBWazBz3ATmT0_TOmDTIvCTIDZ6I" rel="nofollow - https://cornellpubs.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoq3RPEOc5N5SugQr_MnPvzOzBWazBz3ATmT0_TOmDTIvCTIDZ6I

They offer REPRINTS of old catalogs.  They have at least 25 Parker-Hale/Parker catalogs spanning from 1933 - 1970.

They're REPRINTS; they're decent copies of originals

https://cornellpubs.com/?s=parker+hale" rel="nofollow - https://cornellpubs.com/?s=parker+hale  

I've also picked up several vintage BSA catalogs from them.

Relatively inexpensive and a good source of information.

I got this very strange error message when trying both of those links?

"Too Many Requests

The user has sent too many requests in a given amount of time."

I come back later and all is well.   Probably a problem with their server.

But well worth trying again.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/206080940284" rel="nofollow - THE N.R.A. JUBILEE 1909 & RIFLEMAN'S PARKER-HALE 1953-54 CATALOGUES ARMS | eBay UK