FROM ENFIELD TO AIRGUNS

History, as I was told at school, isn’t just a record of what once happened. It’s more important than that because learning the lessons of the past can help us shape our present and our future. That’s something I’ve taken to heart ever since, and I believe this applies to airgun shooting as well.

When The Shooting Party released the long-awaited CO2-powered, BB-firing Lee-Enfield SMLE I began to research the Lee-Enfield family of rifles and how soldiers were trained to use them. One document I came across was Small Arms Training Volume I, issued by the War Office. This booklet was written in 1937 and revised in June 1939, just three months before the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Lee-Enfield SMLE is best known for its use in the First World War, but while it should have been replaced by the more modern Rifle No. 4 at the start of the Second, countless Commonwealth soldiers trained with and went into the action with the SMLE. I initially wondered whether I could apply what I read in the Small Arms Training manual when shooting The Shooting Party’s CO2 SMLE, but soon found out that much of it is as relevant to the airgun shooter of today as it was the Lee-Enfield rifleman of the Second World War. I hope you agree!