Thread: Some Lee Enfield History

Living in a town called Hawick in the Scottish Borders, turns out it has a connection to the inventor of the beloved Lee Rifles.

Greetings All,
Interesting that Lee and Ross, designers of two of the rifles most associated with the .303 cartridge, were born in Scotland and died in the US. The Lee and Ross rifles were chambered for other cartridges before the .303. The Martini Enfield was designed by the American Peabody and improved by the Swiss Martini. The P14 Enfield is a clear knock of of the Mauser and lastly the .303 (7.7mm) cartridge was developed by another Swiss, Rubin with the rim added by the Brits. Just where do the English fit into all of this?
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
Interesting that Lee and Ross, designers of two of the rifles most associated with the .303 cartridge, were born in Scotland and died in the US. The Lee and Ross rifles were chambered for other cartridges before the .303. The Martini Enfield was designed by the American Peabody and improved by the Swiss Martini. The P14 Enfield is a clear knock of of the Mauser and lastly the .303 (7.7mm) cartridge was developed by another Swiss, Rubin with the rim added by the Brits. Just where do the English fit into all of this?
Regards Grandpamac.

Some of Britain's best exports were people and their ideas.

Scotland claims the Telephone,TV and Penicillin so why not the Lee action?

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
Interesting that Lee and Ross, designers of two of the rifles most associated with the .303 cartridge, were born in Scotland and died in the US. The Lee and Ross rifles were chambered for other cartridges before the .303. The Martini Enfield was designed by the American Peabody and improved by the Swiss Martini. The P14 Enfield is a clear knock of of the Mauser and lastly the .303 (7.7mm) cartridge was developed by another Swiss, Rubin with the rim added by the Brits. Just where do the English fit into all of this?
Regards Grandpamac.

Might as well add in the BREN and the lesser known BESA machine guns.

Greetings @caberslash,
I deliberately used the word "English" rather than "British" as you likely noticed. Even NZ's military first bolt action repeater was a Remington Lee in .43 Spanish. I believe there is one in Te Papa. Ross was not the first one with a straight pull military rifle either. That honour fell to Lee in 1895 with the 6mm Lee Navy.
Grandpamac.

you need to talk to @Tertle. he is the enfield guru.

That honour fell to Lee in 1895 with the 6mm Lee Navy.
@grandpamac Lee was ahead of his time... 6mm and also the parent case to the .220 Swift!

Wonder if he would shoot a Creedmoor?

Arguably James Paris Lee's most significant firearms invention was not the rear-locking, short-stroke, small-lift, fast-racking, butterysmooth, Lee action... but rather the ubiquituous box magazine.

Originally Posted by Cordite

Arguably James Paris Lee's most significant firearms invention was not the rear-locking, short-stroke, small-lift, fast-racking, butterysmooth, Lee action... but rather the ubiquituous box magazine.

Aye!

And trust the scrimpy Brits not to make full use of it, use stripper clips to load instead...

Another mention would be that the Lee Enfield lived on as the L42A1 in British arsenals into the 1990's... rumour has it some are still gathering dust somewhere!

Where does the Remington Lee fit into the evolution of the Lee Enfield? I never heard of them till I saw this
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...3?bof=JnMCFNcI

Originally Posted by paremata

Where does the Remington Lee fit into the evolution of the Lee Enfield? I never heard of them till I saw this
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...3?bof=JnMCFNcI

The Remington Lee Rifles predate both the Lee Enfield and the earlier Lee Metford. The first Lee rifles date from just before 1880. Most were in 45-70 or .43 Spanish. I have seen a cut away drawing of a later rifle that appears to be chambered for .30-40 Krag (.30 Army) about 1890 or a little after. A lot of the internals are very like the Lee Enfield. Lots to learn about rifles.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

The Remington Lee Rifles predate both the Lee Enfield and the earlier Lee Metford. The first Lee rifles date from just before 1880. Most were in 45-70 or .43 Spanish. I have seen a cut away drawing of a later rifle that appears to be chambered for .30-40 Krag (.30 Army) about 1890 or a little after. A lot of the internals are very like the Lee Enfield. Lots to learn about rifles.
Regards Grandpamac.

Theres a cutaway here and a bit about Lee, interesting https://www.americanrifleman.org/con...d-of-its-time/

Originally Posted by Mauser308

They made it all work!

And the stripper clips when properly utilised, are by far the fastest way to reload a non-link fed or non-drum fed firearm...

For a 5- or 10-round magazine, definitely yes. But not 20- or 30-round magazines, except clips can be useful for top-ups.

Originally Posted by Mauser308

They made it all work!

And the stripper clips when properly utilised, are by far the fastest way to reload a non-link fed or non-drum fed firearm...

Probably be faster still if you just swap magazines?

Stripper clips are faster than changing the mags out, and mean that you never need to have less than 6 rounds in the mag - top up at 5 is the go.

Carrying 150 rounds in stripper clips is lighter and less bulky than the same in magazines also.

Have a look at the mad minute videos on youtube - a practiced shot with a pile of stripper clips can crank them out.