SMLE sporter

Well, this one is late. As some may know, Gerry Cox made me an old English sporter out of an SMLE, the kind most fine English makers offered in the early 20th century. He did this out of kindness, friendship, and the challenge, in return for a minor favor. I am not only touched-- it is a useful rifle; the biggest rifle cartridge I have at the moment, in an action that, unaltered, may have, as Dave Petzal said, killed more big game species than any other. (Bonus lit point: Geoffrey Household's English agronomist used an SMLE and a "16 bore from Eibar" in Dance of the Dwarfs). Here is a typical page from an early 20th century catalog:

Gerry obtained a functional but not pretty specimen with a Fajen 50's style stock, took my measurements, and proceeded to work magic. Several people who know something have complimented him on the nice wood in the stock, not knowing he had to patch and blend more than one spot, invisibly. And though he didn't fake grain, he did stain it to the perfect color (colour?) And then he checkered it, doing rather better than some custom gunmakers I know.

Before:

His understanding of fitting was such that when I raise it up swiftly my eye comes to rest on the bead in the center of two concentric rings, the peep and the sight hood-- that is, it fits perfectly.

I'm keeping this one.

And then I remembered that the hand -embroidered gun slip from Uzbekistan that textile scholar- falconer Eric Wilcox had given me years ago was made for an Enfield (obvious from the hole for the bolt handle). Full size military rifles were right for length but too bulky; Jungle carbines so short you folded over a couple of inches. But my new sporter, like Goldilocks' porridge, was just right-- the slip covers it entirely.

I like to imagine the slip was a gift to some player of the Great Game who was also a sportsman, like Shipton. Or a naturalist- hunter, like Salim Ali. His friend Meinertzhagen like to call him a "treasonous little Wog", a fact recorded by Ali in his autobiography with great good humor. History at the moment is kinder to him that the Colonel.

Gerry was here this week with his wife and companion Caroline. The wind was up and we didn't go to the range; in fact, we talked so much, and the talk was so good, that we never took pics; I am hoping that somehow they did. Gerry?

Military Rifles and the LATE Great Game

To continue the series on guns I have & like, humble & noble...

I don't have a military Mauser because I already have a first rate example built as sporting one.

I don't have a Springfield because with a gun of similar action and caliber (Mauser) it seems a bit redundant.

I don't have a Mosin Nagant and given my Russophilia "might should". I tell people I am holding out for a rare lever action model 95 Winchester made in Mosin's caliber for the Czarist army (it would probably have to be a gift!-- money isn't getting better!)

I DO have two very different very utilitarian military rifles with a long history in Asia. Lots of cheap ammo is still available for both, from corrosive primer Pakistani army ANCIENT .303 British (clean with lots of Windex) to that steel case Russian 7.62 X 39 James McMurtry sings about-- Russian bubba ammo. (Though remember its role in Vaillant's Tiger).

The English bolt rifle is a late SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield)in .303, Great Britain's Empire gun for most of the 20th century, for years the most popular caliber in Canada, and a modest caliber that has taken every big game animal in Africa. It is still used by park rangers in Nepal and India. An old guide friend in BC once dropped a moose dead in its tracks at 400 yards using the elevated military sights-- I prefer its excellent "ghost ring" peep, still good for my old eyes at 100 yards or so.

It is my favorite military action. Before they switched to (mostly-- I have seen pix of some uncanny sporting Rigby Mauser clones) AK47 variants, the infamous weapons shops of Peshawar built many Enfields, complete with English proof marks. I wonder whether the gun toted by the Afghan hunter in this Kenworthy sculpture, photo'd by Sir Terence Clark, is one of those? It is certainly an SMLE.



Here are the two guns, the English bolt (older ones were used in WW I) and the late WWII Russian (actually this one is Yugoslav) semiauto that fires a similar bullet from a MUCH smaller case, and is because of its cheapness and ruggedness and the availability of ammo the choice of poor hunters from the Ozarks to Kamchatka. (Its bayonet is useful but generally as a "stand"-- you extend it and stick it into the ground so your rifle remains high and dry and vertical). I like having one around for it Asian history, its utter utility, its cheap ammo, and because it pisses off some who love Gentleman's Guns like my Grant, for I am a socially equivocal creature who rather likes both-- lifestyles as well as guns...

The SKS is more accurate than the popular "pray & spray" AK47 of the same caliber, but I would admit (Arthur?) the long barrel and the good peep make me shoot the Enfield better.

(I should add that they are on a Kazakh wall hanging that might have seen either in a previous life).





While I am on the unlikely intersection of guns in Asia and Asian textiles I must show off a gorgeous Uzbek embroidered gunslip made specifically for the short version of the SMLE, the "Jungle Carbine", obtained for me by old friend, falconer, and textile scholar Eric Wilcox. Nothing else fits its length and bolt hole. I'll never get rid of it-- anybody have a Jungle carbine that needs a home?

More Pretties

I keep forgetting to put in a better pic of the Stephen Grant sidelever. So: ancient (1889) English Best gun, resting on a relatively modern kilim I picked up in Sanliurfa on the Kurdish tazi expedition,