The King of Enfield Sniper Rifles” – Firearms Blog

As a professional Hoser, I can tell you that the Lee-Enfield is the greatest bolt action rifle ever made – sorry Mauser fans, but the record is 2-0. And while you could argue the merits and strengths of every Lee-Enfield ever made, one model stands out for its fighting career at a time when bolt-actions had long fallen out of favor. The L42A1 served the British Army from 1970 to 1990, and now Jeff John has published a new book with the life story of this sniper rifle.

Lee-Enfield @ TFB:

History of the Lee-Enfield

The Lee-Enfield rifle entered British military service in 1895, a direct descendant of the Lee-Metford, which debuted in 1888. This second action rifle designed by James Paris Lee was almost as short as the first when British units they fared poorly against Mauser-equipped settlers in South Africa. But financial realities forced the British Army to make some upgrades to the Lee-Enfield and the ammunition used instead. It was the standard military issue rifle for British Empire troops through World War I, World War II and Korea, not to mention countless smaller remnants such as the Malayan Emergency and the Suez Emergency.

The British Army eventually replaced the Lee-Enfield with the L1A1 (a British version of the FN FAL), but to this day the Lee-Enfield is in official and unofficial use by military, paramilitary and police around the world.

Special for the sharpshooter

While various sniperized versions of the Lee-Enfield existed over the decades, the final version used by the British was the L42A1. This is a Lee-Enfield chambered from .303 British to 7.62×51 NATO with a new barrel, new stock and other updates.

The L42A1 was still hampered by some of the problems that hindered the accuracy of the Lee-Enfield, but it was as good as British gunsmiths could make it and served into the 1970s and 1980s, with some of these rifles dusted off for service. in the gulf war and even the war on terror in the 2000’s. No wonder the rifle was deemed worthy of its own book!

We’ve looked at this rifle in the past, via TFB TV:

New publication

Jeff John’s 82 page book on the rifle is titled Britain’s L42A1: King of the Enfield Sniper Rifles. According to the Amazon listing, it hit the market in early April. The book has over 100 color photos and is currently listed for $28.95 on Amazon, where it seems to have decent reviews to begin with – see more info here.

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