Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to another video on ForgottenWeapons.com.
I'm Ian McCollum and I'm here today at the Rock Island Auction Company
taking a look at a Number 1 Mark V SMLE.
This is, if I'm going to be honest, my ... very favorite version of the Lee-Enfield because it's just really cool.
This is a pattern that was tested as a trials rifle in the 1920s, and its genesis goes back to about 1911.
In 1911 the British government did some testing of notch sights versus aperture sights on their rifles,
and the testing board came to the conclusion that the aperture sight
was the superior style and that the next British service rifle should incorporate it.
Well, the next British service rifle at that point was looking like it was going to be the Pattern of 1913 Enfield rifle,
which was a Mauser style bolt action chambered for the .276 Enfield cartridge, which was quite a powerful cartridge.
I have a separate video on the Pattern 1913. If you're interested check that out, I'll have it linked at the end of this video.
And that rifle had a rear aperture sight. Now that would kind of take off ... in its own direction,
it would become the Pattern 1914 during World War One in .303 calibre.
The US would also adopt it as the Model 1917 rifle in .30-06 calibre.
But after the war both countries pretty much dropped it. Britain kept their 1914s as kind of a reserve backup rifle,
but they went back to the No. 1 Mk III during World War One and after.
And so in the 1920s they start looking at what should we replace this service rifle with?
We've gone through World War One, we've got the experience of the war, and
how can we take those lessons and turn them into a better service rifle.
And one of the main things they were looking at doing was improving the sights.
So they designed this rifle and they went ahead and made 20,000 of them between 1922
and 1924 in two minor variations, which I will actually point out to you right now.
I think these are just really cool rifles, you get that cool kind of bulldog snub nosed looking front end out here.
But you also get a really nice aperture sight and I actually rather like the aperture sights myself, so this is a great fit I think.
Now I mentioned that there are two different variations of this, and they are two different versions of the sights really.
This is the second version and it is calibrated out to 1,400 yards, and it has no volley sights.
By the later version here they realised the volley sights really just aren't that relevant, aren't that important.
We don't need to try and shoot out to 3,000 plus yards with these things, like that's just not even happening.
The first versions of these rifles actually did have volley sights set on them.
And they're slightly different from the No. 1 Mk III volley sights because the
... safety here is a little wider to get around the new rear sight block.
So the rear volley sight had to be a little kind of dogleg, a little different shape.
So the first batch of production No. 1 Mk Vs had the volley sights on the side.
They were also calibrated up to 1,500 yards and they had a little bit of a different style of spring.
So the problem was in initial testing they found that that spring didn't really work well,
and they came to the conclusion that the volley sights just weren't necessary.
And so that's when they redesigned the rifle just a little bit, got rid of the volley sights, and
... they changed the locking mechanism for this slider and they shortened the sight gradations out to 1,400.
The physical size of the sight stayed the same, so the ... charger bridge here didn't have to change.
Taking a look at the markings here. We have a "GR" for King George, Enfield production, 1924.
You'll find these 1922, '23 and '24.
And the model designation is a Short Lee-Enfield Mark 5, Roman numeral V.
The serial number is up on the front of the receiver and there are two different options for them.
20,000 guns: they ran from number 1 to number 9,999, and then they started over at A1 and went up to A9,999.
So this is from really the beginning of the second batch of 10,000.
Interestingly, while they got rid of the volley sights, they did opt to keep the magazine cut off.
Now the early guns at least had a magazine cut off without this little viewing hole in it.
I see conflicting information on whether or not all of them did, some people say the 1924 guns,
which this is one of, did have the hole in that cut off plate.
So.
Interesting to me that they kept the cut off plate, I think that was not so much for volley fire
as probably as a safety mechanism to allow the guns to be safely carried with a loaded magazine and no round in the chamber.
And even if someone went and worked the bolt for some reason,
if you've got the magazine cut off engaged it's still not going to load a round.
Otherwise the action is identical to a No. 1 Mk III, still has that really fast cock on closing, rear locking lug action of the Enfield.
The rear sight here has...
In this position it's set for ... basically your battle sight, and then to use it at extended range
the whole thing flips up like this. And you can then squeeze down on this little tab and
slide the sight up or down to whatever range is appropriate.
Unfortunately on this example someone appears to have drilled out the long range sight and then threaded it for an insert.
Possibly because it got damaged at some point. But whatever the cause the insert isn't there.
Being predictably cost-conscious, the British government did investigate the possibility of converting No. 1 Mk III rifles
to this new Mark V pattern. And they came to the conclusion that it really just wasn't cost effective.
They made a couple of them, but only as kind of a trials sort of batch, so.
All of the No. 1 Mk Vs were made from scratch as No. 1 Mk V rifles.
It's not entirely clear what happened to these after the war.
Some of them ended up being used by the British Home Guard, which certainly makes sense.
Some of them appear to have been sold as military aid, or given away as military aid,
because they show up after the war in a variety of places. They showed up coming out of India.
There's a picture of one in use with a Viet Cong soldier at some point during one of the Vietnam conflicts.
So there's kind of this diaspora of No. 1 Mk V Enfields around the world after World War Two.
So despite having an official sealed pattern created of this rifle, it was never actually formally adopted.
What ended up happening was the British military took it to the Bisley ranges to consult with military shooters
and also the British NRA. Competitive target shooters, long-range shooters, the guys who are really
expert marksmen, and get their input on how they thought this would work as a new service rifle.
Really, a remarkable ...
perspective for a military to actually consult some of those people. Well the feedback that they got from Bisley was
not great. Like, a lot of the target shooters didn't really like this rifle.
They thought the rear sight was too fragile, which by the way ... that complaint has some merit to it.
My own ... Mark V has a bent rear sight, as have at least one or two others that I've seen. So that can happen.
They also complained that the gradations on this sight weren't fine enough, you know,
You couldn't ... tweak it quite right. Now to my mind that's something much more of concern to target shooting
than it would be to actual military combat, but that was part of the feedback they got.
And the Bisley shooters also wanted a heavier barrel on the gun.
So the British government took all of that feedback and acted on it,
and they produced the No. 1 Mk VI rifle, which would very quickly become the No. 4,
which is the classic World War Two style of Lee-Enfield rifle that we're used to seeing, so.
And in doing so, by the way, they did in fact create a stronger rear sight with finer gradations and a heavier barrel.
If you're interested in the No. 1 Mk VI, I also have a video on that
which I will also link at the end of this video so you can check that out.
If you'd like to know more about the Rock Island Auction Company
I have links in the description text below to their Instagram and YouTube channels,
check those out. They have a lot of cool items there as well as really cool items in their auctions.
So find their website, take a look at it, enjoy.
Thanks for watching.