Due to extenuating circumstances, I had to buy a 1944 SMLE (lack of ready cash) for a hunting rifle. I hunted deer with it for several years until I got back to my lever rifles. With my diminishing eyesight I mounted a 4x scope for better distance shooting (even though I seldom took shots over 100 yards). The accuracy was very good with factory loads so I reloaded with lighter weight spire points and that increased my range a little. It, like a lot of the military surplus rifles, can be very good hunting rifles.

I hear ya.

I've never hunted with an SMLE, but as a young cash strapped married man my deer rifle was a "sporterized" 03-A3. Did the trick then and still would if i needed it to.

Regards,
Bob.

The Lee Enfield is a very under appreciated rifle and round in this country, especially with the latest and greatest magazine writer wonder rifles.
Originally designed and produced here in the US with the model 1879. The magazine design was a first and is still in use by every nation on earth.
By the way, you have a #4 mk1, the SMLE was the earlier (WW 1) model.

My first rifle was a Mk1#5 Original Jungle Carbine. I traded 4 boxes of 30 30 ammo for it. i shot a few feral goats with it but no deer or pigs. I wish i still had it.

Please dont lose the magazine for your rifle, they arent cheap and the after market ones dont compare to the originals.

Speaking in terms of 20th century bolt action military rifles:

"The Americans built a target rifle,
The Germans built a sporting rifle,
The British built a fighting rifle."


The French? I dunno what they built!

Maybe, maybe not. The SMLE was still in production and service throughout WWII, and for some years after. Not every country using the SMLE went over to the No 4.

Either of them, SMLE or No 4, can make a good practical hunting rifle though. The No 4 has, it must be admitted, better sights for the purpose as-issued.

You're correct, WTF. Since I have both the No. 4 Mk 1 and the No. 1 Mk 4 (dated 1941), I just tend to lump them both into SMLE as they are so much alike and both in .303. The marking system for these rifles was som mixed up, it's hard to tell what you actually have (also so many parts were interchangeable). Both have sporterized stocks. I just bought Maj. Reynold's book on the Enfields and I'm amazed at how much information he has compiled on them.

Yes, I intentionally left out the Lithgow since the most common variety one comes across here is the #4. Simply a dice roll.

A No 4 is not an SMLE, and in fact very few parts indeed are interchangeable.

Not just Lithgow. India stayed with the SMLE too, and made over 600,000 of them during WWII alone, continuing for a good few years after.

Anyway, the OP has now confirmed that indeed it isn't an SMLE after all, but a No 4, so I guess the point is moot.

My first deer rifle was a Number 4 Mark 1. Halfway sporterized, managed to kill a few deer with it until I went on to rifles that I liked better. Nothing wrong with either the rifle or the cartridge, as the Lee Enfield rifle in it's various forms, and the 303 British cartridge, have probably killed more game worldwide than any other.

Amusing anecdote:

A club member brought a rank newbie to camp one year. Nice kid, and he proudly unwrapped a crudely sporterized No.4Mk1. None of us paid much attention to the gun except to watch how he handled it.

The evening of opening day he returned to camp utterly dejected. He took a shot at a standing buck and missed by a mile, and couldn't understand why. At that point I asked him if he had sighted the gun in beforehand. "Whatcha mean" was the reply. Next I asked to look at the gun. That's when I noticed it didn't even have a front sight blade- he was using the "ears" of the sight protector as the front sight, whichever one to use was determined by which direction a deer would be running.

We fixed him up with a beater camp gun, Win M94, and drilled him on dry firing and sight picture all evening. The rest of the week he had strict orders not to lever a round into the chamber until he was ready to shoot, which as far as we knew he honored. On the last day a dumb spike wandered in front of him and he nailed it.

I took Ernie, his host, aside and strongly suggested he more thoroughly vet any other guests he brought into our midst.

P.S. The newbie kid went on to be a real rifle loony and more than made up for his initial faux pas.

I was born in Burien.

My father was born in Burien in 1921. There was no freeway to get there then. Just a dirt road called Myer's Way that followed the "Highline" South of Seattle.

I finally got some decent photos of my SMLE. It's a Lithgow made in 1941. From the stampings it appears to be a No. 1 Mk III*. I'm still trying to get readable photos of my No. 4. I have a few more photos but they have to be sized down to fit here.