Enfields for hunting

At the Whyte museum in Banff, they have the personal rifle of one of the early guides, it's a carbine, a bring back from the Boer war ? Several of them served.

Grizz
 
In the middle of absolute nowhere rural Canada, you will find a local store with ammo. They will have 30-30, 30-06, .303 and maybe two other calibers
 
My own family history a bit "skimpy" about buying guns between those Wars. My Grandpa was making a living on dirt near Big River, Sask. Then, and even now, pretty much qualifies as "the bush". I think that lever action centre fire were about all to find, or at least most common to find? GrandPa had a 38-55 that was regularly borrowed by neighbours to take their moose - my Dad says rifle came back - one or two shells expended, a big chunk of moose meat in "rental". Dad had a 38-40 and a 44-40 when he started farming after WWII. Shotgun was too expensive to buy shells for, so a double barrel 12 gauge got traded for a thumb fired single shot .22 - my dad and brothers used that for bush rabbits to eat and squirrel pelts to sell to buy more shells. 1930's Saskatchewan. May have been different in other parts of the country.
 
J.P. said:
In the middle of absolute nowhere rural Canada, you will find a local store with ammo. They will have 30-30, 30-06, .303 and maybe two other calibers
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One of the other 2 calibers are guaranteed to be something like 250-3000 or 303 savage lol.
 
It was only Post WW2 the 303 LE rifle became somewhat popular amongst Labrador hunters.

Well prior to that the 30-30 was much more popular amongst locals. To aesser degree 25-35 and 25-20 amongst the trappers.

Prior to this the 44-40 was king. And when the 30-30 carbines and rifles replaced them the 44-40 became a backup rifle. Sometimes left in a rural cabin in a corner nearest the wood stove or other times left at home when the men are gone hunting/trapping/fishing.

Post WW2 Mausers were another inexpensive rifle easily found and purchased at the Hudson Bay Store.

Edit: for those better healed than most the Savage 99 in many differing calibers also were sought out.
 
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mcpiper said:
One of the other 2 calibers are guaranteed to be something like 250-3000 or 303 savage lol.
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Showing my age, but would go traipsing along with my Dad when he was deer hunting in central Sask - much too young to have licence of my own - say first half of 1960's - in the area was a white hair be-whiskered old fella that plowed through the snow on snow shoes - everyone knew of him - and he carried a 250-3000. Some years later, in my teens, hunted with a guy my age who had borrowed a rifle from his Dad - was chambered in 303 Savage. If central Sask qualifies as "middle of no where in rural Canada", then need to add 270 Win to that list - seemed to have been popular. Later days, add 7mm Rem Mag or perhaps 243 Win. Very conservative thinking bunch - whatever it was they carried, it had to work - or at least be inexpensive to buy...
 
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Pre ww1 was the era of the lever action rifle for most hunters but it would be understandable that some enfield s followed the soldiers home after the war as it would be for some their first exposure to bolt action guns and the fact that they were rugged enough to survive battlefield use would not be lost on them.Couple that with the fact that the Great Depression was around the corner so a cheap ,rugged ,dependable rifle would be highly valued at that time and would find their way into hunters hands
 
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Lee Enfields would not have been super common hunting rifles pre-WWII. They were around to some degree but the common surplus of that era was more the Sniders, Martini-Henrys, Trapdoors, etc. I.E. the previous wave of surplus. Lee Enfields would still have been modern arms at that point and they would have been emptying stores of the previous generation of arms not the current one. Any large excesses would likely go to a nation state, rather than the citizens of their own.
 
Eaglelord17 said:
Lee Enfields would not have been super common hunting rifles pre-WWII. They were around to some degree but the common surplus of that era was more the Sniders, Martini-Henrys, Trapdoors, etc. I.E. the previous wave of surplus. Lee Enfields would still have been modern arms at that point and they would have been emptying stores of the previous generation of arms not the current one. Any large excesses would likely go to a nation state, rather than the citizens of their own.
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Agree! From my reading, appears the No. 1 Lee Enfields, P14's and M1917's were stashed into "strategic reserves" by Britain and USA - were not sold off as surplus following WWI - and mostly all dragged out, refurbished and some actually used during WWII. After that one, it seems most armies wanted semi-auto for their Infantrymen - like the 30-06 Garand or the 30 US Carbine used by USA - so a LOT of the military bolt guns got sold off very cheaply during the later 1940's and into the 1950's. My Dad got his M1917 in late 1940's - never used another rifle for hunting since that - his 38-40, 44-40, 30-30 all went way.
 
I tend to agree with Brutus. The majority of hunting rifles at that time were lever actions using mostly old black powder cartridges (a lot converted to smokeless powder). Bolt actions were coming on to the scene by young men coming home from the war. But think of it as the 1st guy who showed up at your hunt camp with a plastic stocked rifle, or for the younger guys, the looks you got when you showed up with your black rifle. The lever gun was still probably the most popular rifle carried in the bush in North America through the 50's & early 60's (I know that can be highly debated)...? So to answer your question: IMO, I don't think a lot of Enfields could be found in the bush at that time.
 
Some interesting replies. I was thinking along the lines that WW1 as being the war to end all wars that there would be a surplus of Enfields available but I overlooked the fact that it was still the current service rifle. I guess the plan of the day was to store them until needed. I suppose the odd one would have come home in a kit bag but then the only ammo would have been ball.
 
billbmcleod said:
Some interesting replies. I was thinking along the lines that WW1 as being the war to end all wars that there would be a surplus of Enfields available but I overlooked the fact that it was still the current service rifle. I guess the plan of the day was to store them until needed.
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I mean I bet they were still popular, many probably made it way back in a duffle bag.
 
I had read in a book by Dave George - Volume One (?) of "Carvings from the Veldt" that the Second Anglo-Boer War - 1899-1902 - was last engagement where returning Canadian, Australian and British soldiers were "allowed" to keep both their own issued arms and any "battle field pick-ups" that they managed to drag along. A good number of the captured Boer Mausers were also bought up on the scene by USA and other buyers, and were also presented as "war trophies" to Canadian and Australia governments - so many thousands of them got "turned loose" that way - all sort of before WWI.
 
DANCESWITHEMPTIES said:
I tend to agree with Brutus. The majority of hunting rifles at that time were lever actions using mostly old black powder cartridges (a lot converted to smokeless powder). Bolt actions were coming on to the scene by young men coming home from the war. But think of it as the 1st guy who showed up at your hunt camp with a plastic stocked rifle, or for the younger guys, the looks you got when you showed up with your black rifle. The lever gun was still probably the most popular rifle carried in the bush in North America through the 50's & early 60's (I know that can be highly debated)...? So to answer your question: IMO, I don't think a lot of Enfields could be found in the bush at that time.
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The references I used were the local Labrador history phamplets entitled "Them Days."

The derge of 303s was definitely Post WW2, and hastened by the Americans leaving Goose Bay during the Cold War.

Certainly the ranger patrols contributed heavily with a small rural community awash in non corrosive 303 fmj.

Sealing rifles moved from 22 Hornet to 222 Remington in later years.
 
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One thing to keep in mind, When Mr Speed/Lee and Metford/Enfield put their products together to bring about the rifles we commonly group together as Lee Enfields, they were considered to be BEST RIFLES for hunters and most commoners just couldn't afford them.

The components were available to entrepreneurs just about anywhere in the world, but mostly in the UK.

The competition was for the most part commercial Mausers and in some cases, Double rifles.

There were a lot of single shot, bolt rifles, break action and falling block variants available and in most of th world that is what was used to hunt with.

Early Mauser/Lee magazine rifles were cutting edge tech when they first appeared on the markets.

Didn't take very long for both of them to garner large followings.

As for lever actions, they weren't unpopulare but they were also expensive and limited in power in some cases. That isn't saying there weren't some very powerful cartridge chamberings offered in them at the time.

If the OP is only talking about North America, lever action firearms seemed to play more of a role than they did in Europe. But to consider their impact on the rest of the world, not so much. The Russians liked the M95s enough to adopt them for their military. I believe France adopted US made lever actions for limited military use as well.

For the average commoner, IMHO it wasn't until after the early Lee Metfords had seen a few years of military service' proven themselves and later sold out of service onto the surplus markets around the world, that they became available at a price that was affordable.
 
The Canadian government did not release any Ross rifles after WW1. Any Mark I or short Mark II rifles went to Cadet Corps for DP
purpose only. For shooting .22 BSA Martinis were bought to replace Ross cadet rifles. The long mark II and Marks III rifles were put
into store and most of those were shipped out to England for Home Guard or extra service use in 1940. Ross sniper rifles were never
shipped out but remained in sniper schools until 1944 when supplies of No. 4 Ts became available. JOHN
 
jtaylor said:
The Canadian government did not release any Ross rifles after WW1. Any Mark I or short Mark II rifles went to Cadet Corps for DP
purpose only. For shooting .22 BSA Martinis were bought to replace Ross cadet rifles. The long mark II and Marks III rifles were put
into store and most of those were shipped out to England for Home Guard or extra service use in 1940. Ross sniper rifles were never
shipped out but remained in sniper schools until 1944 when supplies of No. 4 Ts became available. JOHN
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Thanks for that info
 
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