Royal Enfield

Looked like something out of MASH. UK version.. Interesting.

Wow, I've never seen one before. They did a very nice restore on it. Great capture.

I was expecting a rifle.... Nice pic, though

texaskev wrote in post #11964470
Wow, I've never seen one before. They did a very nice restore on it. Great capture.

That's a brand new bike. Enfields have been built in India for many years and now they are starting to export them.

Kurt O.

We've had Indian produced Royal Enfields in the UK for some time. That looks like an updated model and not the original RE Bullet model that was virtually identical to the 1950's version.

Snydremark wrote in post #11964543
I was expecting a rifle.... Nice pic, though

None of the rifles manufactured by the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield was ever known as a Royal Enfield, they were commonly called Lee Enfield's, although there were many variants.
For those in the USA the rifle that is most often thought of as an Enfield, was pretty much a rip off of the German Mauser G98 rifle and built under licence by several different manufactures in the USA including Winchester and a typewriter manufacturer. This was in the early days of world war one. After making many of these rifles for us in .303 calibre, when the USA entered the war in 1917 the design was put back into production for the US forces but this time in the American 30-06 caliber.
I hope that this information is of some interest to readers.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #11966947
None of the rifles manufactured by the Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield was ever known as a Royal Enfield, they were commonly called Lee Enfield's, although there were many variants.
For those in the USA the rifle that is most often thought of as an Enfield, was pretty much a rip off of the German Mauser G98 rifle and built under licence by several different manufactures in the USA including Winchester and a typewriter manufacturer. This was in the early days of world war one. After making many of these rifles for us in .303 calibre, when the USA entered the war in 1917 the design was put back into production for the US forces but this time in the American 30-06 caliber.
I hope that this information is of some interest to readers.

Alan

Utter rubbish the Lee Enfield design has nothing to do with the Mauser G98. The Lee-Enfield rifle was derived from the earlier Lee-Metford, a mechanically similar black powder rifle, which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system with a barrel featuring rifling designed by William Ellis Metford. The Lee action cocked the striker on the closing stroke of the bolt, making the initial opening much faster and easier compared to the "cock on opening" of the Mauser design.

TooTall wrote in post #11964760
That's a brand new bike. Enfields have been built in India for many years and now they are starting to export them.

Kurt O.

Picked it in one Kurt. The front end is a dead giveaway

Ronin Silv wrote in post #11967336
Utter rubbish the Lee Enfield design has nothing to do with the Mauser G98. The Lee-Enfield rifle was derived from the earlier Lee-Metford, a mechanically similar black powder rifle, which combined James Paris Lee's rear-locking bolt system with a barrel featuring rifling designed by William Ellis Metford. The Lee action cocked the striker on the closing stroke of the bolt, making the initial opening much faster and easier compared to the "cock on opening" of the Mauser design.

No it's not utter rubbish. Please re read my original post. I was specifically referring to what we here in the UK would know as a P14 (.303) or P17 (.30-06). Also nowhere in my original post did I mention the "Lee Enfield" specifically by name. In the USA these rifles (P14/P17) are generally known as Enfield rifles, as that is where they were designed. The P14/P17 design is based on the Mauser G98 action. I was aiming my reply to the post that I quoted in my first post who just happened to be American. There are relatively few Lee-Metford, Long Lee-Enfield, SMLE or Lee Enfield No4 rifles in circulation over there. They do though have a lot of P17's left over from W.W.1 and thousands of them were converted to sporting rifles in the twenties and thirties.
Personally I think that the cock on opening action is nicer to operate, although the Lee design is known to be faster. The rear locking Lee action is also superior for accuracy at longer range (800 yards and over) both in the original .303 calibre and in rifles re-barreled in 7.62×51 NATO (308WIN), but not to the same extent as in the original .303, to the Mauser or P14, although personally I think the original Mauser action superior in inherent accuracy at ranges to 600 yards.

Alan

Sorry I should have re read my first post again properly. I had not realised that I had typed "Lee Enfield" in my post. Sometimes what I think and what I actually type end up being slightly, but significantly different in resulting meaning.

Didn't mean to derail the thread; but thanks for the info on the rifles

BigAl007 wrote in post #11968332
No it's not utter rubbish. Please re read my original post. I was specifically referring to what we here in the UK would know as a P14 (.303) or P17 (.30-06). Also nowhere in my original post did I mention the "Lee Enfield" specifically by name. In the USA these rifles (P14/P17) are generally known as Enfield rifles, as that is where they were designed. The P14/P17 design is based on the Mauser G98 action. I was aiming my reply to the post that I quoted in my first post who just happened to be American. There are relatively few Lee-Metford, Long Lee-Enfield, SMLE or Lee Enfield No4 rifles in circulation over there. They do though have a lot of P17's left over from W.W.1 and thousands of them were converted to sporting rifles in the twenties and thirties.
Personally I think that the cock on opening action is nicer to operate, although the Lee design is known to be faster. The rear locking Lee action is also superior for accuracy at longer range (800 yards and over) both in the original .303 calibre and in rifles re-barreled in 7.62×51 NATO (308WIN), but not to the same extent as in the original .303, to the Mauser or P14, although personally I think the original Mauser action superior in inherent accuracy at ranges to 600 yards.

Alan

Sorry I should have re read my first post again properly. I had not realised that I had typed "Lee Enfield" in my post. Sometimes what I think and what I actually type end up being slightly, but significantly different in resulting meaning.

FYI the SMLE and other Lee-Enfield variants are far better known in the US than the P-14, or it's US variant the P-14, there are far more surplus smellies floating around than the mauser knock offs

I have owned 2 of the Lee-Enfields myself, both very fun rifles to shoot, very smooth and fast operators