SMLE Rifle mag cut off

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x westie

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How common was it for a soldier in a British Commonwealth army ..ie {UK..Aussie..India...New Zealand...or Canada}..in WW2... ...be still issued a SMLE rifle with the magazine cut-off....i realize that the SMLE No.1 mk3* did not have a mag cut off..but am curious how common these rifles with the mag cut off were prior to the issue of the No.4 rifle.
 
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MANY No.1MkIII* rifles were converted back to the post-war mkIII spec from 1919 to about 1924 or so. The MkIII* during WW1 was considered an expedient, not the preferred pattern.

By WW2, alot of rifles still in inventory would have had the cutoff, maybe as many as 20% or so. As far as I know, unless a rifle was rebuilt after 1924-ish, the cutoff would not have been purposefully removed.
 
BSA was building SMLEs with magazine cutoffs until 1938 at least; I have one of that date. Lithgow also built a bunch.

General practice was to keep the cutoffs intact until the rifle went to a base armourer. If the cutoff still was serviceable, he might leave it on, might take it off.

Cutoffs are FUN: you can keep your magazine full and still toss single rounds into the chamber and keep up a relatively healthy rate of fire, then slip the cutoff out......... and you've still got a full magazine. That was supposedly the normal way they were to be used and is in the manuals, including Musketry Regulations 1914.

By the way, how many folks nowadays know that the SMLE rifle has THREE built-in rangefinders? True 'nuff.
 
Saw a photo of a British platoon in France,1940, with their arms at port and all SMLEs had the cutoff.
 
LSA only dropped the cutoff in late 1918. Ishapore made rifles with cutoffs into the 30's, and Lithgow officially deleted it from production sometime in 1939.

The Brit factories that kept building rifles (I'm referring to Enfield and BSA, LSA having closed up for good in 1919, NRF stopped production in 1918) resumed using it sometime in late 1919. They stopped fitting them widely in about 1924 from observed examples. Some were likely made after that, and others might have been retrofitted with it in Indian or australian service.
 
And the original idea was to single load your rifle until the enemy got close or in case of a cavalry attack. Keep in mind this was a practical idea before charger loading came along. Sheer inertia kept it going long after it was redundant.
 
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