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/blogginsgod]

My experience with a jungle carbine is a great rifle but fire a few shots for zero with every use as the zero can wander off. Kinda hurts firing $10 just to make sure the zero is good. (I'm also a shit shot).

[u/Flat-Dark-Earth → u/blogginsgod]

Are they as uncomfortable to fire as I have read? Something to do with old rubber buttpads?

[u/jwh-109 → u/Flat-Dark-Earth]

Yeah, the old rubber pads basically turn to concrete as they age. It's not unnoticeable but I find it doesn't make my no. 5 significantly less pleasant to shoot than my no. 3. Where I really notice the difference is muzzle climb. Unlike the poster above I haven't found any issue with "wandering zero", but with a sample size of one rifle I can't say it's definitively not a thing.