July1st 2012: A most interesting letter from a reader
To Whom It May Concern
I am alarmed to see that the otherwise excellent website “The Lee
Enfield Rifle” (https://www.leeenfieldresource.com/) is spreading
misinformation about the Mad Minute
(https://www.leeenfieldresource.com/no1-mk3-the-rapid-fire-one-minute-wonder).
The offending passage is as follows: “On average a rifleman could fire
twenty-five shots, and some could even make it to forty shots.”
I would suggest that the 25-shot “average” is open to discussion but
the 40-shot mark is, to the best of my knowledge, incorrect.
For many years I have understood that “The still-standing world’s
record for a manually loaded rifle was set in 1914. Using a
magazine-loaded Lee-Enfield rifle, Sergeant Snoxall of the British
Army’s School of Musketry shot 38 rounds into a 12-inch bulls-eye set
300 yards away in just one minute.”
I found this information in a document I downloaded years ago. The
document is called “Kronos” and is about the history of conflict amongst
the human race. The information has been repeated (almost perfectly word
for word) in the Wikipedia page on the Mad Minute
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_minute) as well as that on the Lee
Enfield rifle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee-Enfield).
I am interested as I have an interest in the Lee Enfield rifle that
dates back to the days when I was compelled to shoot them as a school
cadet in the mid to late 60s (as well as Bren guns). I understood the
limitation of the bolt action against the automatic, but I would see how
fast I could empty the 10-shot magazine whenever the opportunity
presented itself.
I am a member of a service rifle club which hold competitions for
military firearms or their civilian equivalents and the Mad Minute is a
regular event. Indeed, we sometimes shoot a “Lord Roberts” match to see
how many rounds can go through a Lee Enfield in 60 seconds. Our record
is 28. I have shot a Mad Minute at 100 yards and scored 74.10 (out of a
possible of 75.15).
Could you please amend the Mad Minute page, or speak to the people who
have responsibility for the Mad Minute page, and have this alarming
inaccuracy corrected?
Thank you
Sam
Hi Sam,
Thank goodness we have upstanding folks such as yourself defending the honor of the empire. Your corrections are much appreciated and will be implemented shortly.
In fact your email is so interesting, I never heard of a ‘Lord Roberts’ before, that I’d like to put it on the site, even perhaps devote a more visible page to it, if there is other contests for Enfields, and listing, describing them more, for others to learn about.
If you know of other such tests Enfields can be put to, either historic ones that have faded from memory and common use, or others that are still extant, I’d be happy to hear of them. If you were to format a page, or more, of information that could go straight on site I’d be happy to post it, these all sound like good things to inspire the next generations of Enfielders to experiment with.
God save the Queen,
Regards
Roger Wadham
Hello Roger,
Thank you for your swift response.
The “Lord Roberts” is a version of the Mad Minute. For years I have
been picking up my brass, putting the empty chamber flag in the rifle
and looking around for the remaining time (sometimes as much as 25
seconds) after getting my 15 rounds down range.
It occurred to me that it would be interesting to shoot a Mad Minute
without the 15 round limit to see how many us children of the second
half of the 20th century could get through one of the best battle bolt
action rifles ever made.
Accordingly, when a friend and I were tasked with setting a course of
fire for .303 Day, it was an obvious thing to put in the program. But
what to call it? Then I did a bit of research and came up with Lord
Roberts of Khandahar, VC, who was an advocate for the idea that young
people should learn the art of shooting in case the foreign heathens
caused trouble again. We present a trophy called, unsurprisingly, the
Lord Roberts Trophy, to the winner ov this event.
I have since learnt that a club in South Africa shoot an unlimited
round 60 second match, but they let Mausers enter. Hmmm…
The web-site is very cool with a lot of excellent information in it.
There is, sadly, a lot of tosh talked about Lee Enfields to the point
that some of us are tired of correcting people on the subject. I used to
subscribe to the XXXXXX Lee Enfield forum and gained huge enjoyment
from giving free advice and information until I encountered a closed
mind. Which was a surprise when I realised that the mind was certainly
not closed to stop knowledge getting out as there was, apparently, none
in there.
Anyway, I am happy to pass on my belief that there is an inaccuracy and
look forward to it being corrected.
Cheers
Sam
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Article: A little Lee Enfield History
The Lee-Enfield Bolt-action, magazine fed rifle was the main firearm used by the British Empire and later commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. In particular it was the British army’s main rifle between 1895 and 1960.
The Lee-Enfield or.303 was the standard weapon issued to rifle companies of Great Britain’s armed forces during both World Wars. Although replaced with the L1A1 SLR in the late fifties, the rifle remained in British service up until the mid-sixties. As a standard infantry rifle, it is still found in service with military and police forces throughout the world, which incidentally makes it the longest serving bolt-action rifle in use.
The Lee-Enfield takes its name from two sources. Firstly, James Paris Lee who was the designer of the Bolt incorporated into the rifle; and secondly the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield where the rifle was produced.
The Iconic Lee-Enfield of the First World War was first introduced in 1907 as SMLE MK III (which stood for Short, Magazine, Lee, Enfield) with a Pattern 1907 Bayonet and included a simple rear sight and a fixed charger guide.
During the Great War, the standard MK III was too complex to quickly manufacture as demand was outstripping supply, thus in 1915 the MK III* was introduced. The slight redesign incorporated a number of changes which included the deletion of a magazine cut-off and the cocking piece was changed from a round knob to a serrated slab. The inability to meet demand led the production of the rifle to be peddled out to several munitions companies.
The term “Mad Minute” was a pre-World War One term used by the British Army during training to describe firing fifteen aimed bullets into a target at three hundred yards within one minute, generally using a Lee-Enfield. In particular it was not uncommon during the First World War for British Empire servicemen to beat this record! On average a rifleman could fire twenty-five shots, and some could even make it to forty shots.
In total, over sixteen million Lee-Enfield’s had been produced on several continents by the time production ceased in 1956. During the First World War 3.8 million SMLE rifles were produced and saw service from France too Mesopotamia.
In today’s world, this world renowned rifle is still in use. Although out-dated by technology, the rifle is still us by reserve forces and police including Canada and India. Since the Mumbai train bombings of 2006, Indian police forces have carried Lee-Enfield’s and Isaphore 2A1 rifles (a derivative of the Lee-Enfield) throughout railway stations. In particular footage from the Soviet war in Afghanistan during the eighties show Afghan fighters armed with Lee-Enfield’s. Lee-Enfield rifles are still produced in the tribal bad lands of Afghanistan and Pakistan to this date. The main reason being bolt-action rifles remain effective weapons in desert and mountain environments where accuracy outweighs rate of fire.
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