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Click on any of the images
below to see a larger version of the image.
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 It was one of those
early spring mornings where the sun is shining down, bathing everything in its warmth and
there is virtually no breeze. You know the type of morning I am
talking about, where winter is gone and green is starting to
return to the landscape. There is nothing better to do on a
morning like this, but go to the range. |
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 I had
spent the first part of the morning shooting a scoped Yugo 59/66 SKS
for another article and was in
the mood to try something a little different. I had borrowed a
friends
British Enfield #2 MK
IV Training Rifle, in
caliber .22LR
Rimfire, and had it with me. Usually .22 trainers don't
hold my attention for very long. The first thing I noticed about what
I call an SMLE trainer is that it "IS" an SMLE Mk III rifle
in almost every single respect.
These trainers were built upon SMLE rifles. The bolt was
modified and the barrel was either sleeved or completely
rebarreled in .22 LR. A perfect platform for training soldiers how to
handle their future battle rifles.
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 The
weight difference is only a scant 6 ounces. The original SMLE Mk III
weighing in at 8.9 pounds while the trainer weighs 8.3 pounds.
This fact made shooting the trainer similar to shooting an air
rifle. Other than the small crack of noise when you pull the
trigger there was no other indication that the rifle even had
actually done
anything.
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 The
functionality of the rifle is identical to the original battle
rifle of which it is based upon. This includes the operation of
the safety, bolt, and sights. The sight functionality and adjustments on an SMLE are excellent,
to say the least. Definitely not the quality of sights you would
expect to find on a military trainer rifle.
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Excerpt from prior Surplusrifle.com article - Adjusting
the SMLE sights are easily accomplished by sliding the elevation up and down the gradient. There is also a small micro
adjustment on the rear sight that I have not seen on any other
surplus military rifle. You can adjust
the rifle to a very granular level by turning the "backsight,
fine adjustment worm wheel" one click, each click represents
a change of only 5 yards!
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 The
only downside of the SMLE's sights - is the sight picture. As you can see in
figure 5, they require good (or young) sight to
make out and align the front blade in the small notch
of the rear sight.
I was still able to achieve decent (de·cent adj. -
modest; meeting accepted standards; adequate) accuracy out
to 50 yards. |
 The
SMLE trainer is not a magazine fed rifle. Although the original
magazine is still installed (and can be removed), the follower and spring have been
removed leaving an empty canister. The magazine now only functions as a collection
receptacle for spent casings (as shown in figure 7).
After you fire a round and pull the bolt handle back, the spent
cartridge is extracted and dropped into the empty magazine, not
ejected out of the rifle. |
 I
thought at first that it would be difficult or cumbersome to load one round
at a time into the breech, but discovered after you get used to
the task you can actually reload and fire successive rounds very
quickly. To load, you take a .22 LR cartridge and push it into
the bore of the rifle and then close the bolt on it. Figure 6
shows a loaded round prior to closing the bolt. |
 Accuracy with the
trainer was excellent. I had not adjusted the windage yet, but
the elevation was perfect. The typical group achieved (as shown
in figure 8) was very tight indeed. I fired hundreds
of rounds of many different manufacturers of .22LR ammunition
and all performed in a similar fashion. A full weighted and
single shot trainer is far more interesting to shoot than I
thought it would be. I did not want to give the rifle back and
spent considerable time thinking about what I could trade to keep it
in my collection. I finally decided that it would be bad form to
keep it any longer and returned it to its gracious owner. I did
find some for sale and am working on getting one of my very own
to add to my collection. You can find the British Enfield #2 MK IV
Training Rifle at the time of writing this article for $468 @
http://catalog.jgsales.com/
jlm;) |
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