This was the ceremonial burial of an Enfield No. 4 rifle by the Royal Navy at Bisley, England, in 1966. This event marked the end of the venerable rifle's service.
The Royal Navy conducted a full military honors burial for an Enfield No. 4 rifle. A piper played a lament during the ceremony, and cartridges were scattered over the white ensign-draped coffin.
This unique event symbolized the official retirement of the Enfield No. 4 rifle from service. The venerable old .303 No. 4 Mark I was replaced by the L1A1 SLR as the main British Army battle rifle in the 1950s. However, some Lee Enfields were rechambered to NATO 7.62mm calibre with a view to being kept as reserve rifles. This didn’t catch on but, in 1970, a new 7.62mm Lee Enfield was produced, the L42A1 sniper rifle.
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On sale today - back under $ 20.00 again. Jump on it.
This is the same knife I've carried for 50+ years
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Dad had the Enfield #5 Jungle rifle he kept in the gun rack on the farm truck. It would kick hard enough you didn't want to take a second shot.
ReplyDeleteI got to fire them quite a bit during cadets at my high school in New Zealand. They did kick when you're a scrawny school kid. We also got to field strip and reassemble Bren guns. Some guys got to fire them on the range. That was very early 1970's, .303 cartridges were getting hard to come by by then. I suspect schools here would have a panic attack today at the thought of boys having fun with guns.
DeleteI bought one at a gun show in Florida back in the early '90's for $110 dollars + $10 for the correct sling. A box of soft point ammo of 20 cartridges cost $20 (.303 Brit). Wonderful dual-stage trigger. Took a few deer and hogs with it. Fun gun, I shouldn't have sold it, even if I made $150 on the deal.
ReplyDeleteWe had a good number of Lee Enfield .303s at my boys Grammar school armoury in the 70's, Bren too, we didn't fire them very often and mainly used .22's for target practice on our own range, Army and RAF cadets at the school.
ReplyDeleteWe took the Lees out when we had cadet adventure camps, blanks only.
Couple of times the Army had us down to the Kent ranges to practice on the SLR mentioned.
The woke that have ruined England would have a blue fit now at the thought of an armed school, a good number of the 6th formers ended up in the services, many went to Sandhurst.