Since I've received tons (5) of email on a Box O' Truth story I mentioned a while ago, I thought it germane to post an explanation for everyone to see.

Not that it's a big deal. The old man (he's my age) tries his darndest to provide info on weapons and munitions, but he hasn't the knowledge or the knack, but so far I've seen nothing that would lead me to believe anyone would harm themselves by following his advice, so all is hunky dory and I continue to mention his hamfisted meanderings because, what the hell, shooting is fun.

The article in question was about the .303 Lee Enfield, and the flubdubbery concerned it's cyclic rate of fire. The Brit manual called for 8 aimed rounds per minute, but since the magazine held 10, the field commanders changed it to...anyone...anyone...10 aimed rounds per minute, yes.

Then along comes the rub. One of the things the guys in the field learned was that when using your middle finger to fire, and your thumb and forefinger to work the bolt, with THIS rifle, you could crank out a magazine in no time at all. It wasn't of course anything resembling aimed fire, but akin to spray and pray. Spray and pray works when you positively absolutely need to get the other guys to duck and/or stop heading in your direction. S&P from the Lee took about 20 seconds to unload a mag in the vicinity of an aggressor, and we're talking bolt action here, so that's pretty cool. The magazine, however, wasn't removed, but clip fed, and that took some time to reload so officers and senior NCO's were hesitant to order S&P, or Volley Fire as they called it, because it wasted a lot of ammo and waste wasn't something the Brits could afford during WWI. And Volley Fire was very, very, inaccurate.

So then. Along comes the old guy from Box O' Truth, braggin on his Aussie-made Lee. Now, it's obvious he was never a military man because he believes these pig in a poke stories far too easily, but he practices and practices and lo and behold, he gets to the point whereby he can crank out a round a second. Anyone who knows what bump-fire is, also knows that THAT'S for play too, and claiming that you can shoot x-amount of bullets in x-amount of time is great, but in combat it's not a game anymore and simply isn't done.

But nobody, I think, is using Lee Enfields for home defense, so this nonsensical tale of tomfollery isn't gonna hurt. The SMLE...Short Magazine Lee Enfield... fires a 180 grain bullet at about 2400 fps, so it's definitely a man stopper, and could be employed to protect kith and kin, especially since reasonably good ones can be had for under 200 bucks. And by all means, go out and play with it until you run out of ammo, but please don't believe that Volley-Fire is the way to go for removing unwanted visitors from home and hearth. The old Box guy never told us about what the target looked like after he was through playing around, and I think there's a pretty good reason for that.

And since he said that ONE ROUND A SECOND was what the Brits preferred to get out of this weapon, I doth protested both in mail and now here. For a single target, one well paced shot should suffice, so aim and fire. Sure, slam back that bolt and rechamber just in case, but DO NOT spray and pray. The rifle wasn't designed for it, the Brits didn't do it, and neither should you if and when the Ted Kennedy hits the fan.