Lee-Enfield

The Lee-Enfield is a series of bolt-action rifles that was used by the British Armed Forces. It was the main British rifle for the first half of the 20th century, and was used until the end of the century.

While it was not as powerful as rifles used by other countries during both World War I and World War II, it was well-known for holding a lot of bullets and for having a very high rate of fire.

The Lee-Enfield can be loaded with two magazines of five British .303 bullets, allowing for the shooter to have up to ten bullets in the rifle at a time.

Even though bolt-action rifles tend to fire much more slowly than semi-automatic or fully automatic weapons, the Lee-Enfield can fire almost as fast as a semi-automatic rifle if the shooter is well-trained with the weapon. This is because the rifle's bolt needs very little movement to eject and load the rifle.

Lee-Enfield Media

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  Standard Mk VII .303-inch cartridge for Lee–Enfield rifle

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  A Magazine Lee Enfield Mk I* rifle ("Long Tom"), used in the Second Boer War by the New Zealand Mounted Rifles

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  Short Magazine Lee–Enfield No. 1 Mk. III

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  An Indian rifleman with an SMLE Mk III, Egypt, 16 May 1940

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  Women training at Mishmar HaEmek kibbutz with SMLE Mk IIIs during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

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  Magazine cut-off on an SMLE Mk III rifle. This feature was removed on the Mk III* rifle.

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  A member of the Home Guard operating an SMLE No. 1 Mk III Rifle equipped with a grenade launcher cup loaded with an Anti-Tank Grenade of the era.

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  Lee–Enfield No. 4 Mk I Long Branch aperture sights

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  Lee–Enfield No. 4 Mk I (1943), Swedish Army Museum, Stockholm