The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #59418   Message #2777657
Posted By: Rapparee
01-Dec-09 - 12:32 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
Subject: RE: BS: The Mother of all BS threads
Amos, I was taught in college not to translate materials into English, but to assume that the readers would be intelligent enough to translate them themselves.

As both a librarian and a rifleman of more than a half-century's standing, I can discuss the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) until you would, to put it bluntly, puke. For instance, did you know that it was a change, an upgrade, from the 1888 Lee-Metford rifle, and it was adopted in 1895 and used until 1957? That it was known to the ANZAC folks as simply "the 303" for it's caliber? That a 174 grains full metal jacketed (the service round was 215 grains) bullet has a muzzle velocity of 2,475 fps, will rise about 2.75 inches at 100 yards, but has a drop of about 70 inches at 500 yards? Its metric designation is 7.7x56R, and the cartridge was first powered by black powder, then cordite, and then nitrocellulose ("smokeless powder"). A variety of weapons were chambered for the .303 round besides the SMLE, including the Ross Rifle, the Martini-Enfield, the Hotchkiss gun (which was used to shoot down Manfred von Richtofen), and the Bren gun. Variants included a "jungle carbine" used in the CBI during WW2.

And no, I did not look this stuff up. Nor will I explain what you can look up yourself -- it would be unprofessional of me to insult your intelligence by doing so.

Should you like to know more about the SMLE (or anything else), please don't hesitate to ask.