The Lee-Enfield Short Magazine Rifle MkIII, caliber .303 British, also called the SMLE, was manufactured in Britain, India, and Australia. Over three million were produced between 1907 and 1943. While it differs greatly from the Mauser bolt action design favored by purists, it is still totally reliable and nearly as smooth operating. The first time a new user chambers a cartridge, it will be noticed that the bolt must be pushed forward with a quick thrust to prevent a feeding jam. The SMLE and its variants cock on closing the action, rather than the Mauser design of cocking on opening. This is a minor irritant, if one even finds it annoying at all, and can easily be converted to cock on opening by a competent gunsmith.

Recently, a large American wholesaler has offered the SMLE for sale converted to .308 Winchester, or if you prefer, the 7.62X51 NATO. The stampings on the receiver show that this was done in the UK in 1968 by a government arsenal. While the .303 British cartridge is only 6% behind the .308 in terms of velocity with 150 grain spire point bullets, logistics were obviously behind the decision to rechamber a large quantity to the standard NATO cartridge.

The Lee-Enfield rifles were designed for the rimmed .303 British cartridge, but the 7.62X51 is rimless. This conversion doesn't seem to present any feeding problems.

The wood work shows signs of plenty of rough handling, but the metal work is free of rust related pitting and the bores are bright with no appearance of worn throats.

A variety of 150 grain cartridges were fired, from corroded 1975 Israeli military ammunition to new Federal American Eagle FMJ loads and Federal Classic soft points.

Except for those blessed with extraordinary eyesight, the iron sights are adequate for target shooting at a maximum of 50 yards. At 100 yards, printing anything resembling a group on paper was out of the question. The course front sight made target definition very difficult. As an anti-personnel rifle it would be fully up to the task. A number of rounds were fired at a large deer shaped metallic silhouette 350 yards distant. Once finding the proper sight holdover, 60% hits were possible. Like most infantry applications of a rifle, keeping the foe lying low and from advancing is nearly as good as it gets at such distances.

One oddity for which I couldn't account for was the poor accuracy using 180 grain loads. The SMLE was made with a rate of twist of 1 in 8". That should have been sufficiently fast to stabilize bullets up to 220 grains. However, the only decent groups were printed with the shorter 150 grain bullets.

Over 125 rounds were fired from the SMLE without a cleaning. This, though, did not detract from its accuracy or action smoothness.

If aesthetics are important, the rifle buyer would be happier with a new sporting rifle. For a fraction of the cost of a new rifle, the SMLE MkIII in 7.62X51 NATO is a good value chambered for a cartridge that is readily available in a no-frills package.