Monday, June 2, 2025

World War 1 British Bubba-ing?

Big Country is doing a series of Lee-Enfield restorations which are well worth your time if you (like me) love old Mil-Surp bolties.

By accident I ran across one of Ian McCollum's Forgotten Weapons vids about how the British Army did a mod of the SMLE to make it a semi-automatic rifle.  It's cool in a "hey, this really works!" kind of way.  Total kludge, but really cool. 

9 comments:

Tree Mike said...

Yeah, definitely, cludge.

Al_in_Ottawa said...

There was also the Huot conversion of the SMLE into a light machine gun.

Glen Filthie said...

I’m trying to convert the big fag over to Martini Henry’s but I don’t think he has the appreciation for them… 😂

I kinda laugh… you Yanks have access to the best milsurp market in the world… and you get smitten by Smellies? I would love to handle a Krag or an 03 Springfield… or some of the oddball Scandihoovian guns…

Al_in_Ottawa said...

Oooops.... too many facts in my head. The Huot was a conversion of the Ross rifle, the Farquar-Hill was a SMLE conversion.

BigCountryExpat said...

Cool! Thanks for the mention bro! And as to Glen? Finding a Martini Henry within a reasonable price range is really hard.... let me know if you know of a source... believe you me I'd love to try one

Borepatch said...

Glen,

I ran across a Martini-Henry in the wild 15 years ago. Rifle price was pretty good but ammo was $7 a round (!).

https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2011/03/definition-of-impractical.html

But sweet piece of history.

Borepatch said...

Oh, and I love my Lee Enfield.

https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/range-report-lee-enfield-no-4-mk-1.html

Borepatch said...

BCE, I'm sure enjoying your restoration projects.

Ratzn said...

Then on the US side of things,the Pederson conversion for 1903s