The Queen’s Lee Enfield

I was very young when I was introduced to shooting. It was serious business but it was also made fun for me and I recall the instant satisfaction of hitting a reactive target.

As I grew into adolescence I started to focus this interest into more formal shooting associations through my dad, local gun club and sponsors. Our local gun club partnered with the Boy Scouts of Canada to instil the principles of target shooting in the community’s youth. We had affordable 22 Rifles with peep sights installed. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be fun right!

Before I knew it I was 15 years old and I was an accomplished marksman but I was also starting to lose interest in the sport. I did not entirely appreciate the coaching or skill base I had developed back then until I was an adult and started to compete again. My father was a good teacher and his fundamentals of shooting technique and method were very solid. I stopped competitive shooting for fifteen years to obtain a useful education and establish a career path.

Then one day…
Someone I knew handed me a minty Danish refurbed M1 Garand and told me if I gave him $400 it could be mine. In that moment it suddenly dawned on me that I had just been given an opportunity to catch up on something that I had adored as a child and bring it back into adulthood. A significant portion of the activities we enjoy as adults were intrinsically influenced by our youthful endeavours.

I researched when our local gun club meetings were scheduled and started attending them. I did this for about four months until I got to know who the players were and how things operated. Eventually I approached the club’s executive and told them I wanted to start a new branch of the Terrace Rod & Gun Club. It was 1999 and Terrace had not hosted a formal rifle competition in just over 20-years. After a basic interview of who I was and what my intentions were I was promoted to the club’s vacant ‘Rifle Chair’ position. I built and designed an annual vintage military service rifle event that grew in complexity and sophistication over a decade.

Numerous competitors shot this match, many of which travel long distances to attend the course of fire. It was a very large club sponsored event, which sustained its own tradition of shooting, fellowship and an opportunity for new shooters to get involved in the interesting sport of service rifle shooting.



CNo4Mk1*

In the process of invigilating these matches I became familiar with members of the Canadian Rangers whom are a sub-component of the Canadian Armed Forces. I signed up, received some weapon handling drills and was issued a 1950 CNo4Mk1* Lee Enfield. Through the Canadian Rangers the military has provided me with an avenue to build on the principles of marksmanship that I developed as a youth. I have been able to involve myself in shooting opportunities with the Canadian Forces that I would never have been able to partake in otherwise. I have travelled within Canada to compete with the military in service rifle competitions and concentrations with this old Lee Enfield and the two of us have performed admirably.

I attended the Canadian Forces Small Arms Concentration (CFSAC) in 2009 which is located at the Primary Training Centre in Connaught, Ottawa. At this concentration the shooter is exposed to deliberate, snap and rapid fire serials in prone, kneeling, standing and run-down events. Distance to targets vary from 25m to 500m and the lee enfield, when wielded by someone that knows how to use it, can perform these tasks with impressive results. During this concentration I placed fourth highest Ranger shot in Canada, qualified to shoot the Queen’s Medal Round and came home with the highest scoring Tyro Trophy. Not too shabby for a chap that had never shot CFSAC before.

I've shot a lot of ammunition through this rifle over the years and ‘baby it’ more than any other rifle in my collection. I can’t help but feel ‘she’ deserves the extra attention. It is this particular rifle that I know best because of the significant experiences we have enjoyed together.

·         I know where almost every scrape, bruise or blemish on this rifle came from;

·         We have hiked and beat our way across some of Canada’s most difficult and extreme remote wilderness locations together;

·         This Lee Enfield has been relied upon to provide sustenance;

·         This Lee Enfield has won trophies in competitions;

·         I rely on this rifle to protect me from dangerous animals;

·         This rifle may have served Canada in the Korean War and;

·         This rifle has also helped me accumulate and demonstrate the experience required to bridge the gap from student to teacher.

Sufficient to say that I advocate the Lee Enfield rifle every chance I get. I have only one problem with this worn and tired 1950 CNo4Mk1* Lee Enfield rifle. Of all the expensive and modern rifles in my gun safe my favourite rifle is the Ranger issue Lee Enfield - the only rifle I do not own. This favourite rifle belongs to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second; Queen of Canada whom has loaned it to me for my service with the CF.

I’m now the age my father was when he introduced me to shooting. I’m looking forward to passing these milestone lessons down to my sons so that their lives may be enriched by them, as they have enriched mine. 

Riflechair on the right side of this photo