My SMLE Sporter
My dad bought this rifle for me from a department store in 1965 (with reservations.) It was a beautiful thing, straight from FTR. Hardly a blemish anywhere. Back then though, all military surplus rifles were seen primarily as candidates for sporter conversion and I looked on mine as no exception so I turned what would today be a $700.00 to $900.00 into a $150.00 rifle which is a less than I have in the gun even in 1960a dollars. Strangely I don't regret it. I killed my first deer with it, the Remington 180 gr. SPCL round nose dropped that doe like a bad habit at 100 long steps. i killed some deer after that with it too. Being a lover of anachronisms I replaced it with a Remington 700 Classic in .250 Savage and the Enfield became my backup. All the rest of the deer I killed I took with the Remington.
Our son was a big fan of Patterson's Lee Speed Magazine hunting rifle in "The Ghost of the Darkness." I told him I didn't have one of those but I did give him the Enfield sporter. He doesn't hunt but I loaded him up some ammunition with Woodleigh Weldcore 215 gr. soft points which I figured was as close to period ammo I could come up with.
I've often said any collection of Milsurps should include at least one sporter from the period when that was their primary purpose. Here's mine.
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The stock is a Bishop, built to my specs. The gunsmith removed the charger bridge and polished and blued the rifle. The back sight is a Williams 5D. The 5 shot magazine is a late replacement. Originally the butt plate was a Neidner steel which I replaced with a kick pad because of our son's longer length of pull, probably a mistake.
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