Let's Talk Lee-Enfield's

[u/Flat-Dark-Earth]

The Lee Enfield, a rifle that everyone is familiar with and many seem to own, yet somehow I never ended up adding one to the collection.

I'm playing catchup now and would like to pick up a Lee Enfield, the question is which one?

From my understanding there are 5-6 models of the rifle that evolved over it's ~60 years of military service.

For someone looking to buy their first, which examples should I be looking out for? Any to avoid? No.1? No.4? SMLE? Jungle carbine? Long Branch (Made in Canada?).

Also, there were a couple misconceptions surrounding this rifle that I had been told for years, the first was that these were $300-$400 rifles, that only appears to be the case for sporterized examples. Clean unbastardized examples seem to be going for $1,200-$1,800 at retailers today.

The second being that .303 ammo was "expensive" and hard to come by. Neither of these seem to be true as it’s priced comparable to 308 and I am seeing a ton in stock (PPU, S&B etc).

Edit: I think I have decided on a No.4 Mk 2 Long Branch.

[u/TheSmallSlice]

Bidding on a sporterized Winchester P14 1917 right now, I'll have to see how good it actually is though. The auction says its good condition but I'll still take a look at the barrel and bolt and all that if I win. I'm not bidding very much for it anyways but fingers crossed it could be a steal.