| Index |
Managing The Enfield W.S. Curtis ©2001 |
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Introduction |
The Rifle Before turning to shooting techniques, a summary of the rifles most likely to be available for the shooter are the Volunteer Pattern 1853 Long "Three Band" Rifles, Parker-Hale’s version of the same, Short Volunteer "Two Band" Rifles in three and five groove formats with Parker-Hale’s Naval Rifle and a variety of Volunteer Rifles which do not exactly conform to any Pattern. An example of one of these is a heavy five groove Bar on Band which is perfectly acceptable on the range. |
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| The most important consideration for all competition shooting to MLAGB, HARC, and MLAIC Rules is that the sights must conform to Issue Pattern. The writer owns a fine Volunteer version of a Pattern 1856 but with Lancaster’s Oval Bore. This is ineligible for Military Rifle competition because the front sight is an undercut bead instead of an inversed "V" although it is not ruled out by the rifling variation. When seeking an original the one to go for, if at all possible, is a Volunteer London Armoury Co. Pattern 1853. These make a great deal of money today because of their justly earned reputation on the range but their survival rate is good and they can be found, for a price, at most Arms Fairs. Although two to three times the price of a Parker-Hale, they are still worth buying, if possible, because not only will the buyer obtain a fine shooting rifle but he will also be making an excellent investment. |
Enfield sights: |
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Positions of the short and long |
There is one point which should be born in mind. If your eyes are not what they were, there is a distinct advantage in going for the Short Rifle with its 33 inch barrel, rather than the Long Rifle, because the backsight is placed four inches further away from the eye. This improvement was dropped for some reason in the newly made Snider Mark III Short Rifle which placed the sight in the same position, just ahead of the breech, as the Long Enfield and Long Snider. However, the earlier converted Snider Short Rifles retained their original sights. The final point about the rifle is that the nipple must be in good condition and original nipples should ALWAYS be changed for the modern type based on the "reversed cone" principle. These use a small hole at the bottom of the nipple with a large opening at the top. This concentrates the flash down into the charge while, at the same time, reducing the amount of back blast. Original nipples were the other way round and this allowed a great deal of flame and fouling to escape as well as causing problems with weak caps. The damage to the woodwork ahead of the nipple lump on some original rifles shows as a groove burnt quite deeply into the wood and the fouling that has been driven under the barrel at that point is often the cause of quite severe corrosion. New Enfield nipples are freely available from muzzle loading dealers and from the Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain. It is quite possible that an original rifle will have its nipple so firmly locked in by age and rust that it will have to be taken to a specialist gun smith to be freed. See the remarks under CLEANING for the use of PTFE Tape to prevent future problems of this nature. |
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| Improved "reverse
cone" nipples - (a) & (b) top and bottom views of the improved nipple. (c) Phosphor bronze model. (d) Steel model with PTFE tape on the threads. |
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| Given a good Enfield, the practised shooter can enjoy competitive target work at all ranges out to 600 yards. At the longer ranges, wind judgement becomes very important especially given the absence any adjustment for wind on the sights. | |||||||||
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