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.22 Enfield

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Shamu View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2017 at 8:35am
Nothing, its just a different way of labeling it.

ShtLE (Short magazine Lee Enfield) Vs. S.M.L.E. (Short Magazine Lee Enfield.)
BSA marked them that way.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote englishman_ca Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2017 at 1:18pm
Yes, the main difference is semantics. My take on it doesn't necessarily follow the timelines of which came first, one or the other. There is a bit of a story and history to it, but the Reader's Digest version is;-

The first Lee Enfield in 1896 was called a Magazine Lee Enfield and had a barrel 30 inches long. Its designation was the MLE.

It was superseded in 1903 with a rifle that had a lighter and shorter barrel of 25 inches long. It was called a Short Magazine Lee Enfield, its designation was the SMLE.
 
In common parlance to differentiate between the long and the short rifle, the MLE became known as the long Lee Enfield and the new shorter one became known as the short Lee Enfield. 

The Short Lee Enfield designation was the Sht.LE. So as if that was not confusing enough, another later abbreviation in 1925, the Sht.LE Mk.III was redesignated as the No.1 Rifle Mk.III.

So if you had the three rifles, a Sht.LE Mk.III, a SMLE Mk.III, and a No.1 Mk.III, you would have three of the same thing. Different factories and different countries marked theirs with the different designations at different times.

There! As clear as mud, ain't it?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 29 2017 at 2:28pm
& Squaddies, being squaddies, immediately bastardized the terms to "sh*tley" or "Smellie". Its an odd British trait we only abuse the things we really like!
Wacko
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote paddyofurniture Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2017 at 9:49am
My Grandfather used to call Enfield's smiles.

Stick a German with the bayonet and get a smile every time. I think the smile was on my Grandfather's Canadian face.

Always looking for military manuals, Dodge M37 items,books on Berlin Germany, old atlases ( before 1946) , military maps of Scotland. English and Canadian gun parts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2017 at 10:09am
Could be! I had one of them as well he ended up an RSM in the 11Th Gloucesters after he move to Blighty.
Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Zed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2017 at 11:28am
now you have the rifle; you'll need one of these to slip on the end!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Shamu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2017 at 1:43pm
I'm looking.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote A square 10 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 30 2017 at 7:16pm
great synpsis simon , it says it all in less words than many of us might have used and uncomplicates the complicated , those of us that have been collecting[loving] these old roifles for years , decades , a lifetime understand , it is what complicates them for a novice , 
just that change to make all early rifles no1s was a big jump and is complicated alone as i tend to think only the SMLE fit that , i have had some tell me the longer rifles [shortened] fit it as well i disagree but im not the gurue here , 

one thing for certain , these are interesting and collectors that go here are in a realm that offers lots of options and a lifetime of research , well worth traveling the road if you like these fantastic rifles , i will add that simon has knowledge well back from the advent of the SMLE that most collectors could use if they go that direction , 
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