There are a couple of lively internet discussion forums for Lee Enfields. One post I remember clearly was, never say never with Enfields. I'm going to throw another explanation at the situation. After the war, there were lots of rifles sold to civilian shooters. Many were abused and ignored, destined to be stripped for parts and eventually scrapped. I have an early war LB that irretrievably lost a couple pounds as Joe Kitchen-Gunsmith filed, sanded and ground to make it lighter. Other rifles were sporterized to take to the woods. Who wanted to be reminded of the war and lug a long and awkward rifle around when it doesn't need to be so tiring?
The serious shooters, and after your stories, I'd include you ancestor, stayed in the shooting game. Provincial rifle associations received .303 Ball for as-issued service rifle matches. The outside could not be changed, but bedding and barrel floating was a mysterious dark art. Competitiveness is a human survival skill. Good military armourers had their parts bins and tools, and were paid to go the higher level matches to repair civilian owned No.4s and 9mm Brownings with military parts. The theory I heard was, what if a serving soldier was injured by a poorly maintained rifle fired by the civilian beside him? It is not inconceivable that a very good civilian rifle was refitted with known good parts by a skilled craftsman. Some shooters wanted to win matches and go to Connaught or Bisley. Others wanted to shoot good scores but weren't interested or could afford to go past club level matches.
