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| Article Written by: Mark Trope | |||||||||
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| My 1944 .303 Lithgow @ top, ALL the references a Lee-Enfield junkie needs @ center, and the .22 Lithgow 1908 Lee-Enfield @ bottom | |||||||||
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A rimfire trainer for the military makes sense. Many recruits have never even held a rifle, much less fired one. Such men may well be intimidated by the recoil & report of the service cartridge. Teaching the various points of marksmanship become easier when the recruit isn’t worried about getting kicked or the noise factor. Another point in favor of the rimfire trainer is the training budget. Rimfire ammunition costs but a fraction of the cost of the service cartridge. This keeps the bean counters very happy. There is a third, and extremely important factor in favor of service rifle conversions; the recruit is familiarized with the exact weapon he will use in the field. Other then the recoil & noise factor, the soldier will be totally familiarized with his weapon. Recently, I was at West Texas Military Surplus, 2413 – 34th St, Lubbock, Texas 74411, 1-(806)-785-4867, www.gunsandblades.com and the subject of military trainers came up. During the course of the discussion, I was offered the loan of a .22 Lee-Enfield trainer for this article. |
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.22 Lee-Enfield trainer, this rifle SHOOTS! |
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The British Commonwealth nations converted many .303 Lee-Enfields into .22 trainers. The subject weapon was originally made at the Lithgow plant in Australia in 1908 in caliber .303. Sometime later it was converted to .22 LR (Long Rifle). |
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N.S.W. means New South Wales; the “L” stands for Lithgow. Serial #’s covered by tape |
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The conversion process is quite straightforward. The barrel has been replaced with a .22 caliber barrel. The bolt head has an offset firing pin hole and the extractor is longer and correctly contoured for the rim of the .22 LR. The magazine has had its follower & follower spring removed. |
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Special .22 bolt head stamp |
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Notice offset firing pin hole on .22 bolt head at left & special, long narrow extractor |
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Chamber, note slot for extractor |
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I put a fired casing in chamber for size comparison |
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An extracted, fired case |
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Fired cases lying inside magazine |
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In practice, a cartridge is loaded by hand into the chamber and the bolt closed. After the round is fired, the bolt is withdrawn and the ejector drops the fired brass into the bottom of the empty magazine shell. Pretty slick! |
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Small muzzle opening of .22 on left, .303 on right |
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A plethora of stampings & cross outs grace the stock |
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The two arrows facing each other designate this rifle was slated as surplus |
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Stamping on right side of receiver at wrist |
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Twins! Well, almost. .22 Lithgow 1908 Lee-Enfield on left, my 1944 .303 Lithgow on right |
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At the range, I set this rifle up on the front & rear rest, and set a target up at 25 yards. I fed a .22 Federal HP into the chamber. I really didn’t know what to expect from this rifle. The cartridge easily slid in right up to the rim. Match grade arms always have a bit of interference as the bullet engages the rifling before the rim encounters the recess in the barrel; the bolt will finish seating the round. After aligning the sights on the .22 Lee-Enfield, I pressed the trigger. The first thing I noticed was the TOTAL lack of recoil! Nada, nothing, the rifle never moved. Other then the trigger releasing, and a soft “pop” as the cartridge fired, there was no other indication the round had gone off! A look through the spotter scope showed I was on target, but low. I moved the rear sight up a bit and soon I had a round in the 10 ring. I posted another target and fired 5 rounds. The first 4 rounds went into one long hole! A gust of wind pushed my 5th found slightly to the right. I posted a 50yard target and had no trouble keeping all my rounds in the 10 ring. |
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25-yard group, ragged hole @ left is 4 shots! Wind blew 5th shot right |
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50-yard, 5-shot group, two holes in X ring |
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This is one accurate rifle! The Brits knew exactly what they were doing when they designed this conversion. There weren’t that many of these rifles released for export to the US. There are a few around, however, prices tend to be high, and if this one example is representative of the accuracy of all .22 conversions of Lee-Enfield’s, the price may be justified! Sadly, I have to give this rifle back to its rightful owner. I don’t suppose he’d buy off on a story that our cat & guinea pig ate it, or that there was a rift in the space-time continuum within my gun locker, and the .22 Lee-Enfield dissolved into protons neutrons & electrons. Yeah, that’s the ticket…that’s what I’ll tell him! ;-) |
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| Article Written by: Mark Trope |
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