When engaged, the safety prevents the bolt from being operated.

And yet I am the proud owner of a Lee-Enfield No.

Mk. 2 chambered in the original.303 British.

Thousands of Americans just like me bought them new in the box.

How did that happen Ever hear of the Irish Contract Lee-Enfields Let me tell you a story.

The American market was being flooded with Chinese SKS riflesnew, unfired SKS riflesby the tens of thousands.

Every dealer at every gun show had at least 20 of them, and if I remember correctly, they were originally priced at about 150.

After everyone and their brother had bought two, you could find them for as low as 99 in my neighborhood.

Sometime between 1993 and 1995, I walked into a gun show and on one of the dealers tables were two wooden crates of rifles.

From a distance I spied wood stocks and walked over, thinking they were yet more of the Chinese bang sticks.

But there, in the crates before me, were Lee-Enfield No.

Mk. 2 rifles. Brand-new, never-fired rifles.

One crate had been readied for immediate sale, and the rifles in the other crate were still wrapped in wax paper and thickly coated with Cosmoline.

Each of the Cosmoline-coated rifles was priced at an impressively affordable 175.

Thousands of them.

Irish Contract Enfield S Serial Numbers On The

Closer examination of a rifle showed matching serial numbers on the receiver, magazine, and bolt handle etched by electro-pencil.

The Lee-Enfields cock-on-close bolt is smooth and easy to work, one of the reasons why it is considered the superior bolt-action battle rifle from World War II.

The Lee-Enfield No.

Mk. I was the rifle fielded by Great Britain during World War II, and its considered by many to be the best bolt-action battle rifle fielded during that war.

The No. 4 Mk. 2 went into production circa 1949 and is virtually identical to the Mk.

I. The Mk. 2 rifles featured beechwood stocks with a slight redesign of the fore-stock, brass buttplates instead of zinc and a trigger mounted to the receiver instead of the trigger guard.

Many Mk. I rifles were upgraded to Mk.

And, no, the previous sentence isnt in error.

The Mk. I rifles used Roman numerals, but they switched to Arabic numerals in 1944 for the Mk.

The first Lee-Enfield rifle was introduced in 1895 as the.303 calibre, Rifle, Magazine, Lee-Enfield.

The subject of this article is technically the SMLE No.

Mk. 2Short Magazine Lee-Enfield, as it comes from the 1904 line of Enfields designed shorter and lighter than the original.

Mk. I is chambered in the rimmed.303 British cartridge, which is roughly equivalent in power to the.308 Win.

The.303 Brit actually features a wider, 0.312-inch bullet than the.308 Win., so if youre in the mood to handload, be aware that the common American.308 bullet is too small.

Irish Contract Enfield S Plus Round Is

The most common.303 British surplus round is the Mark VII, which features a 174-grain bullet traveling roughly 2,500 fps.

Equipped with a 25.2-inch barrel for a 44.45-inch overall length and a full-length wood stock and weighing in at a whopping 9.06 pounds, this rifle is sturdy enough to be used as a club if you run out of ammo.

There are lugs on the exposed end of the barrel for attaching a bayonet.

This rifle sports a detachable 10-round, double-column magazine that is meant to be loaded through the top with five-round stripper clips.

The rifle has a short, fixed front sight post that is protected by two beefy ears.

For a rear sight, you have two options: a large battle sight aperture calibrated for 300-yard shooting and a flip-up ladder sight marked from 200 to 1,300 meters.

At 5mm (roughly 0.2 inch), the Enfields battle sight aperture is large enough that many people would consider it a ghost ring rear sight.

The sight radius on the rifle is 29 inches, allowing for some decent precision.

Irish Contract Enfield Serial Numbers