Today’s Ethiopian Oddity is a rifle that began its like as an early Lee Enfield MkI made by London Small Arms. It has the original buttstock, early style safety, volley sights, and magazine cutoff from that configuration. However, at some point it appears to have been reworked by an Ethiopian armorer. The barrel was replaced with one of SMLE length (longer than an early Lee Enfield carbine but shorter than a Long Lee rifle). The bayonet lug is completely non-functional, and SMLE-style handguard was fitted, and a unique front sight protector added. Neat!
Bolt Action Rifles
Boer Lee-Speed Rifle from the Jameson Raid
Lot 1687 in the September 2019 RIA auction. The Jameson Raid in December 1895 was one of the key events in the lead to the second Boer War. Leander Jameson took a force of about […]
garand development
Slow Motion: .276 Pedersen Rifle (Video)
I have assembled all the slow motion footage from my Pedersen shooting session into its own standalone video, for the folks who are interested. This does also include a malfunction that we caught on camera […]
Book review
Book Review: The Green Meanie L96A1 by Steve Houghton
Following up on his 2018 “The British Sniper: A Century of Evolution”, Steve Houghton has now released a followup book on the L96A1 in particular: “The Green Meanie”. This rifles was a paradigm shift for […]
A gunsmithing problem borne of resource-limitations. I suppose the original barrel was burnt out by extensive use. Perhaps the original stock was smashed to pieces from being used to bludgeon idiots too much. I could be wrong.
The original barrel was most probably cleaned out and not shot out I bet. Firearms get cleaned too often and shot too rarely in the military.
Its a commercially made rifle by London Small arms Co as opposed to being made for a British military contract. Quite a rare rifle.