Milsurp After Hours

After my first post here about the Parker's Rifle Shot's Register hosted on Jay Curragh's Lee-Enfield

website, I thought I should take the time to tell you a bit about myself.

I am in my mid-fifties, and live in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. My primary gun collecting interest

is Canadian/British military firearms up to WWII - which has resulted in a very broad-based assortment,

ranging from a Long Land Pattern musket, Pattern 1853 Enfield rifle and London-Model Colt 1851

revolver of the sort adopted by Canada in 1855 (all of them modern replicas, unfortunately) ...

through several Sniders (currently 3), Martinis (4 at present) and Lee-Enfields, together with a

fairly large assortment of military handguns: an 1882 .476 Enfield with NWMP provenance,

various Webleys, other Canadian military handguns (which traditionally have been American, not

British - i.e. Colts and S&W's) and culminating with my 1944 Canadian-made Inglis High Power

(which remains Canada's primary military sidearm!)

It's more of a conglomeration than a collection, I suppose, but I enjoy it.

Here are a few random members of the clan, in no particular order ...

North West Mounted Police Enfield revolver (with backdrop of an 1888 NWMP Station

and Patrol map) -

http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/476_02a.jpg[/pic]

Canadian-marked Snider-Enfield MkII Long Rifle (with backdrop of the Fort Henry Guard

volley firing with Sniders) -

http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/se_fhg.jpg[/pic]

Canadian-marked Martini-Henry MkIII (with backdrop showing members of the Queen's Own

Rifles of Canada, one of the few Canadian units to ever be issued Marini-Henry rifles) -

http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/mkiiiqor.jpg[/pic]

Long Branch No. 4 MkI* rifle, Inglis High Power and .380/.38S&W revolver, with assorted

other Canadian WWII kit ...

http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/dday11.jpg[/pic]

My primary shooting activity for the past several years has been "frontier action shooting"

- a.k.a. cowboy action shooting - though I prefer the former phrase, as the base of "personas"

and geographical areas encompassed by the concept is much broader than the American West.

In fact, I have combined my two main areas of interest, and have gravitated in the past few

years toward a Victorian-era British Empire military persona, using firearms appropriate to

the impression to the extent permitted by the rules of the events where I am participating -

http://members.memlane.com/gromboug/mustweb.jpg[/pic]

That revolver is a beut Id love one of those.

The Snider and the Martini Henry for me please http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v14/j ... rool02.gif[/pic]

Joe

Although I love it, especially with its NWMP history, the Enfield revolver is an ungainly beast, at best.

One very quickly learns, when shooting it, why it was so short-lived as a military service pistol - prone

to having cartridge cases slip off the extraction star and drop back into the chamber - where they

prevent you from closing up the revolver until the very difficult task of clearing them has been

accomplished - and having to be reloaded one cartridge at a time through a loading gate. It amazes

me that the NWMP kept them in service as long as they did (until 1905) - mind you I sometimes

think that they may be the real reason for the reputation of the early Mounties resorting to

gunplay only as a last resort - i.e. it may have come about entirely out of necessity, not by

choice!

I love the Martinis and Sniders, too. The Martini-Henry seems capable of considerably greater

consistent accuracy, while the Snider-Enfield is a definite challenge in that regard. I recently

acquired a fairly nice Canadian-marked 2-band Short Rifle (actually ended up with two of them

during that quest, though the one I'll keep is definitely the better of the two.) Haven't had a

chance to get it out to range for a test-drive yet, but hope it will become my "shooting Snider" -

it is functionally very sound and has a very good bore, so I hope the reputation for the

significantly greater accuracy of the faster twist Short Rifles is borne out!

Will have to get some pictures done up!

Grant, Good to see ya here...isn't the pic with the LB one you had in a photo contest a while back?

Regards, Brad

bradtx - Yes, had that one in the photo contest at Parallax Bill's ...

Any Ross rifles? I have one, a Mark III with the British rear sight, plus

bayonet and scabbard. Had it for 20 years, still haven't fired it,more out

inertia than anything else. Mine has very nice wood. Canada's Native

Rifle, read that Ross was always tinkering with and trying to improve his

rifles, but he never took the time to perfect them.

Actually, that is the "gaping hole" in my collection of Canadian military firearms - not even a single Ross ... yet.

I am currently on the lookout for one - probably will start with a Mark III, as the model Canada went to war with in WWI - though suppose I'll undoubtedly succumb to getting earlier examples, in due course ...

Now I do like a good Ross, here's my MK 11 complete with a Sutherland sight,

Ross came from Balnagown near Tain, about 20 miles from my croft.

I've also got an unground bayonet to go with it. Its got the flaming bomb marks on it so the old US of A saw the excellence of the .303" cartridge.



http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ ... s_3_LS.jpg[/pic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ ... s_1_RS.jpg[/pic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ ... _Top_A.jpg[/pic]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/1003/ ... amps_A.jpg[/pic]

I don't think the USA saw the excellence of the 303 catridge so much

as that when we entered WWI in 1917 Uncle Sam bought almost anything

that would shoot to at least train his boys. I have seen pictures of WWI

U.S. Navy recruits drilling with Krags (though I have read the Marine Corps

used the Krag until 1911) and I have read of stateside troops drilling with

Trapdoor Springfields (never seen a photo, though). The shortage of the

"official" issue M1903 led Uncle Sam to take a long hard look at converting the U.S. produced P-14 to 30/06, that led to the adoption

of the M1917 that 75% of the AEF carried by Armistice Day.