Service Rifles Enfield SMLE & No.4
by Michael Standage
Background history Service Rifles
Between 1850 and 1950 military service rifles went through rapid changes reflecting advancing technology. Single shot, muzzle loaded, black powder smooth bores evolved via breech loading into magazine loaded, smooth bore to rifled, black powder to nitro-based propellant, component based loads & projectiles to modern sealed cartridges, all of which moved military shooting from a group based area fire activity to the selective fire aimed individual of today. Training mostly uneducated recruits to cope with the technology changes was not easy.
The army decided smaller calibre “miniature training rifles” for recruits and cadets was the solution, these closely replicated the overall dimensions of each generation of new full-bore service rifles, but the smaller bore cartridges reduced both felt recoil and encouraged “target practice” at more readily available shorter rifle ranges, and lower ammunition costs enabling recruits to gain confidence and become familiar with the technology. The actual rifles might look different to the actual full bore service rifles, but felt similar and most significantly used the same sight systems.
The “training rifles” moved from being Martini Henry’s with rifled tubes inserted into the barrels of actual service rifles into the “War Office Miniature Training Rifles” which were all of a similar pattern and .22 LR, whoever made them. (In the club there is a good example of one of these). They did not really catch on with the civilian target shooters of the time, but most armies brought lots of them and are easy to find and still great value.
As the mass production of military rifles took over from hand building and wartime requirements limited manufacturing options the military trainers came to more closely resemble the “real thing” except for their use of a .22LR barrel and bolt. Although some of them utilized the magazine loading systems now universally adopted by armies for training rifles these proved rather complex and costly to adapt for .22, so single shot, hand loading of the round was common. The magazine casing just collects the spent cartridge cases. Even when the military moved away from .303 to 7.62, and now 5.56 self loading and automatic rifles in the 1960’s and 70’s they still use .22 LR trainers based on the latest service rifle.
Setup
The photo illustrates the two most common types of .22 Service Rifle likely to be encountered in the UK.
The upper rifle is an Enfield SMLE type from around 1910 and the lower one an Enfield No.4 MK2 type from around 1940, its no coincidence these were made around the time of global wars.
There are lots of variants with minor technical differences but 90% of those used by the UK & Commonwealth armies look like these two. Other countries have similar “family” variations.
Using any of these training rifles in LRRFC or NRA Long Range .22 competitions is easy, and fantastic fun.
The standard military sights on these training rifles usually keep the same yardage markings as the full bore version, although they might have one extra line marking somewhere for 25 or 50 yard .22 reference.
So, an SMLE or No.4 Mk2 rear sight will be graduated for between 200 to 1200 yards. For shooting .22 LR at 200 yards you set the rear sight at 825 yards, and for 300 yards at 1040 yards. Its close enough to get you somewhere on the target and hopefully then allows you to fine tune into the bullseye with some more sight adjustment (if there is any remaining) or by estimating “hold-off”.
For 400 yards or more there is no adjustment left in the rear sight, so you just aim higher up the target or even into the sand.
Dealing with windage or line corrections is much more challenging, especially as these are very significant in .22 long range shooting. The vast majority of training rifles have very limited rear sight adjustment. The Enfield No.4 Mk 2 used here, does not have any windage adjustment in the rear sight, any correction is all done by estimation and aim-off. Those models that do have some windage adjustment clearly have a significant advantage, but its rarely enough once the wind gains speed.
Competition use comment
One item to note, is that for .22 LR competitions both the NRA and LRRFC allow the use of “any” iron sights in Service Rifle class. In full bore the Service rifle class is split into Service Rifle (A) and Service Rifle (B).
- Service Rifle (A) means exactly “as issued” by the military especially for sights and slings. No personalisation or changes.
- Service Rifle (B) allows substitution of front and rear sights with precision micrometre multi-adjustable sights, better slings, barrel bedding, etc. The potential performance enhancement these provide is usually significant.
There is a love for the challenge and fun that comes from trying to make a SR (A) rifle deliver scores like the SR (B) rifle, but if you want to take on the MR and TR performers with an SR in .22LR you will need to use the SR(B) configuration.
Service Rifle Enfield No.7
by Tony Cattermole
This is an original issued rifle with an aperture rear sight.
It’s a firm favourite, as the Enfield No.7, is this owners rifle of choice, it has proven itself accurate at 100 yards, and distances up to 400 yards using R50 ammunition.
The set up achieves this accuracy, through the benefit of this rifle’s original issued aperture rear sight, being calibrated for 25/50/100, but with enough spare elevation to achieve 200/300/400. The elevation scale lends itself to incising markings for these extended distances.
The 5 shot magazine is time consuming to reload, when time is of the essence in competitions. This has been overcome with a personal adaption of a single-shot ramp being used instead.
At these distances, the rear sight slide is quite elevated, and so to avoid sighting errors by looking through the gap below the slide, a high tech home modification is used, consisting of “blu tack” and a small black card to cover this space.
