Enfield Rifles Page

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Enfield Pictorial
Identification Charts

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This page is going to replace the earlier page that I accidentally deleted and or overwrote any and all backups that I had. It is going to take a while to get this page up and running so please be patient.

I have decided to address these rifles in 4 categories as follows;

1.	The Long Lee's including the MLM (Magazine Lee Metford) , LE (Lee Enfield) , MLE (Magazine Lee Enfield), series of rifles, 1888 - 1906, and variations based on these rifles. Lee Carbines carbine variations
2.	The ShtLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield), SMLE, or No1 series, 1906 - 1970 ?, I will try to include as many of the Mk's as I can get pictures of but expect to see MkIII and MkIII*, as these are the most common.
3.	The No4 Enfield, 1941 - 1970 ?, these are sometimes incorrectly referred to as WWII Enfields, with the earlier Enfields referred to as WWI Enfields
4.	And Finally the No5 1944 - 1947, these are the shortened and lightened Enfields and are commonly known as Jungle Carbines as they were employed in SE Asia for the most part. (Troops reported all sorts of problems, including the "wandering zero", with the No5, which lead the Enfield EM-2 SLR trials and finally to the adoption of the FN rifle. It has been speculated that there was nothing wrong with the No5's, but the enemy had more firepower using semi auto rifles like the SKS)

General identifying features of these rifles will be illustrated in the first table. More detailed descriptions of variations within these categories will follow in additional tables.
(I'm getting ambitious here and will not get all this done till 2006 at the rate I'm going)

MLE LE	No 1 Rifles	No4 Rifles	No5 Rifles
Long Lee's Lee Carbines	ShtLE, SMLE, No1,		Shortened and lightened, Jungle Carbine


Magazine Similar to No1 rifles but should have a short chain linking it to the rifle			Same as No4 Rifles

1888 - 1901 Enfields Long Lee's, Lee Metfords

1888 - 1901 Enfield Carbines Calvary, Artillery, Constabulary, New Zealand

No1 Rifles MkI to MkIV

No4 Rifles Mk1 Mk1* Mk2 Mk1/2 Mk1/3

Mk1 - Mk1* The Mk1* was introduced in order to speed production. this was accomplished by simplifying many of the parts, however the main change was the removal ot the bolt release plunger, this function was replaced by machining an interuption in the rail near the breach which allows the bolthead to be rotated out of the rail and removed. Other changes were a simplified rear site, either stamped sheet metal or 2 position flip, rather than the micrometer adjustable milled site. trigger guards were also made with stamped parts, and cocking pieces without grasping groves or 2 position safeties many of these simplified parts were later swaped out and replaced, and are not good indicators for identifying diferent Mk's, (both rifles in the pictures have stamped rear sites). However originaly the Mk1 had a 5 groove barrel while many of the Mk1* have 2 groove barrels, some have 3 and 4 groove barrels as well. The 3 groove barrels were a straight barrel in a sleeved knox and recalled and replaced as this design was prone to failure.	Mk1 above Mk1* below milled and stamped
Mk1 - Mk2 trigger The Mk2 was introduced in 1949, the main change was the mounting of the trigger. The trigger was moved from the trigger guard and hung from the receiver. This was done to improve the trigger, with it mounted on the trigger guard there is some movement as the wood swells and contracts. By mounting it directly to the receiver there is no changes to the trigger group geometry. Many Mk1 and Mk1* rifles were converted to the Mk2 configuration, this was done my soldering a trigger boss to the receiver and either milling off part to the trigger guard, or replacing the trigger guard with one like the No5 rifle. These rifles were renumbered as Mk1/2 from Mk1 and Mk1/3 from Mk1*. The forestock was also either replaced or modified to fit the new trigger arrangement, the back reinforcing strap was replaced with a cross bolt
7.62x51mm Conversions link to history page use browser back button to return In the 1950's NATO adopted the 7.62x51mm round, and there was a need for Bolt action sniper and target rifles chambered for the new round. The L8(A1,A2,A3,A4,A5), L39A1, L42A1 Enforcer, Envoy, and DCRA conversion were developed. These are No4 recievers with 7.62 barrels, originaly with full wood but later versions the forestocks were cutback. Most had either target sites or scope mounts.