Three images of the SMLE stand out in my head. Soldier wading through waist deep mud with a very muddy stick in his hand, an SMLE. Another was a few soldiers sitting in a trench, their SMLEs sitting on the bank absolutely in recognizably caked in mud. The last, my own Dad beating his hunting knife through the brisket of a bull moose with the butt of a nearly 100 year old Sporterized SMLE because he forgot his bone saw at home. Later it was wiped down and went back into the rack. He always told me not to be too gentle with Grandpas gun, it might not like it!
If I was put in a situation where I needed a reliable rifle to protect my family and myself, where I would not have access to proper cleaning and maintenance equipment, one that I would expect to continue working after being beaten up, dropped, used as a club, filled with mud and rained on steadily, subjected to extreme cold etc its going to be the #### on close, built for all the trenches of WWI could throw at it SMLE. No doubt in my mind that it will always work when I need it, as it has for generations of my family. That rifle helped my Great Grandpa survive frontline duty in WWI, and another Grandfather in WWII. It has filled our freezers for decades and is still a go to rifle in my a Father and my own household. The Lee-Enfield will always hold a special place for me.
Supposedly killed more people than anything else up to the time of firearms. 
