Lee-Enfield

The Lee-Enfield series of rifles was born in 1895 as a marriage between the James Paris Lee designed magazine and bolt action, and Enfield pattern rifling. In general, the SMLE was one of the best bolt action military rifles to see service. It was rapid firing, accurate and reliable. While being less suitable for "sporterizing" than Mausers, they are still popular among civilians as a hunting and plinking weapons, and also as a part of the history. The key deficiencies of the SMLE were probably the rimmed ammunition and non-interchangeability of bolts, but the advantages of this design were much bigger and Lee-Enfields in all its guises served Britain and the British Commonwealth for more than 60 years in front line service and much longer as a specialized sniping weapon.