1950 Parker-Hale Catalogue

My understanding is the SMLE was preferred at long range (900 and 1000 yds) due to its compensating nature in which fast bullets left the muzzle at a lower angle of departure than slow bullets. But that came at the price of larger vertical dispersions at short range where the No. 4 was preferred. 

How I wish I had a full set of wide blade foresights! I had to resort to modifying a standard service foresight blade which I did by epoxying a thin sheet of brass to each side of the blade and filing to shape.  

Geoff, to answer this in the order you have written it: 

My first SMLE ever was built from new items in the 1990's. I was too wet behind the ears and actually believed the seller's patter; I subsequently found out that his story that these were built for Ireland and never used was grade A BS! 

Robin Fulton, (of that shop in Bisley camp) used an SMLE in 1958 to win the Queens Prize at 900 & 1000 but used his No.4 at 300, 500 & 600. I would suspect this was probably the last time we saw an SMLE in the Queens final??

From 1948 the Bisley bible just says the sling has to be attached to the rifle in two places and not wider that 2" inches for SR"b" matches; before 1948 there is a restriction on the length of the sling to 54 1/2" inches.  I think the modern term for this rule is called overreach! 

It just about allowed the use of a Bren Gun sling, much favoured in rifle teams of the Light Infantry regiments in the 1970's with the L1A1.

Fat Foresights...I've now taken to looking at foresights blades with a much sharper eye at arms fairs rather than walking past them as I used to.

Just to add fuel to the fire

When the SMLE came out originally, they were looked down on somewhat because of the "short barrel & shortened sight radius" compared to the old "Long Toms"!

When those were cut down for range rifles rules it was considered almost sacrilege!

I  constantly get picked on for having the M1907 sling on my SMLE's because "they were never ever used & so wrong and not P.C./ H.C. Thanks for the docs to refute that.

The only Issue I have had with them is the original '03 & Garand rifles sling swivels are 2" closer together than Lee-Enfield ones. This makes getting the adjustments just right doesn't quite follow the USMC suggestions for hook placement.

I find that instead of #8 or #9 I use #3 or #4 to hook the long front strap, that seems to fix the problem.

Derek, you have raised a question which relates to the two different Service Rifle categories, SR(a) and SR(b).  SR(a) rules are essentially “as issued” service rifles and a sling was not permitted.  SR(b) allowed considerable leeway to “accurize” the rifle which included bedding the fore-end, packing hand guards, fitting aperture sights, use of a sling, wide (fat) blade foresights, etc. I believe the heavier barrel for the SMLE was only allowed for SR(b) shooting. 

Perhaps Mick knows when the SR(b) classification was introduced into the UK NRA competition rules? 

Strangely Brown wrote: I wasn't sure which Forum to put this in? This is a very recent eBay purchase to go with others I've collected over the years.

Catalogues, old pams, etc are just the thing for professional scanning (and OCR and editing afterwards if one lacks a copy of of Adobe's Acrobat Pro) and sharing with the fraternity.

The local pro shop my architect wife uses for scanning old cadastral data from paper form to electronic charges $70/hr.  Which sounds like a lot until you see how fast their massive Canon scanners go through pages of books.

I finally got my hands on a full version of the Canadian pam for the C1 A2 FN FAL.  The tech who fiddled around to clean up the appearance of the yellowed paper before feeding it into the scanner did the job so fast the cost to me was $11 in total.

If I just wanted it for a keepsake or electronic reference, that would be good enough.  

However, like similar scanning of old reloading manuals in very worn condition, putting a few days of hobbyist's effort into cleaning up the scans, creating indexes etc will result in a finished result more enjoyable and usable, not to mention better for anyone wanting to actually print it off.

Anyways, scanning and preserving this old historical stuff for all interested people to see at places like Archive.org can be a bit of a labor of love.

Where else would I have hoped to find reloading data for my .35 Newton, when ammunition for it hasn't been manufactured since the 1920's?  Well, in a scanned reloading manual from the first years of Speer bullets!