The Brits have arrived

[Svennn]

Fantastic weekend allround for me. Took Friday off also making a four day break. In addition to covering about fifty miles walking the dogs, having the wifes sisters kids overnight, some gardening and shopping I also managed to finish two more teams for the LPL and my first batch of Brits which I envisage in Africa but also China.

[Plynkes]

That's the ticket! Top notch.

(Not being a gun-nut I made the same mistake you have with my initial batch of Lee-Enfields. I ain't going back to change them but I'll know better for the next batch!   )

[Svennn]

are you referring to my fetish for putting brass barrel rings? :oops:

It just breaks up the area and looks prettier to me. I know its wrong.

I hope its this 'cos if it aint theres more inaccuracies :roll:

[Plynkes]

No. The upper visible part of the barrel on a Lee Enfield, unlike most rifles, is wood, not metal:



I cringe whenever I look at my KAR and Tropical Brits. But like I said, I can't be bothered to change them. At least I'm in good company.  

[Svennn]

fantastic - I never knew that. Metal barrells look better :wink: but they would have been a lot easier and quicker to paint wood :roll:

Thats two of us, so how many more members can we recruit to the incorrect Lee Enfield club then?

[Prof.Witchheimer]

yeah, that's stuff we like, looks gorgeous.

didn't know that with wooden part of the Lee Enfield. Now think about all that numerous Lee Enfields I've painted wrong  :roll:

[PeteMurray]

I have incorrect Lee-Enfields, but I'm claiming they're Canadians with indigenously-manufactured rifles. :mrgreen:

Awesome work, Svenn!

[Plynkes]

The much-maligned Ross?



Also has a partly-wooden upper section. You don't get out of the club that easy.


By the way, Svennn, who's the kneeling chap with the white tache? (the one with the rifle, rather than binoculars bloke) Don't recognize him, but he's full of character. He's not a Brigade fellow like the others is he? I don't believe I've seen him before.

Battle Honours, perhaps? His SMLE looks like the one on my Lawrence of Arabia.

[Aaron]

I probably would have done the same thing if I didn't own one. Beautiful job on those Brits. The blue-grey shirt really jazzes up the bland khaki kit!

[General M@yhem]

fantastic - I never knew that. Metal barrells look better :wink: but they would have been a lot easier and quicker to paint wood :roll:

Thats two of us, so how many more members can we recruit to the incorrect Lee Enfield club then?

Consider me a member.

[PeteMurray]

The much-maligned Ross?

Hank McBride won't shut up with how great the Ross is as a sniper rifle in "A Rifleman Goes To War." I had no idea it had was ever maligned.

[Plynkes]

I have heard tales of Canadian soldiers throwing the things away in France. Has a reputation for being extremely unreliable. Whether this reputation is justified or not is something you have to ask somebody who knows more about the subject than me.


Snipers treat their rifles like they are their favourite mistress. Ordinary soldiers do not. That I think is the difference. It was one of those pieces of equipment that was fine on a firing range (and an excellent rifle for a marksman), but proved an extremely delicate flower in the face of Flanders mud.

[Aaron]

I could be wrong, but I seem to recall reading something about the problems with the Ross having more to do with troops not keeping mud out of the receiver than with the actual rifle.

Err..somehow I missed Plnkes second paragraph! :oops:

[Wirelizard]

I have heard tales of Canadian soldiers throwing the things away in France. Has a reputation for being extremely unreliable. Whether this reputation is justified or not is something you have to ask somebody who knows more about the subject than me.

Apparently the Ross was very accurate, but also very finicky - prone to jamming & failing if it wasn't kept religiously clean. Imagine how easy it is to keep a rifle perfectly clean in the trenches of the Western Front, and you'll realize why the more robust British Lee-Enfield was so much more popular!

Canadian snipers, on the other hand, apparently used the Ross as a sniper rifle all the way through to the end of the Korean War.

Wikipedia has a pretty good article.

[PeteMurray]

Huh. Interesting. McBride is kind of a curmudgeon*, and so keeping a finicky rifle spotlessly clean in a trench is kind of what I'd expect him to do.

EDIT: Wikipedia has an eerily detailed section on firearms.

*: This is a generous way of stating it. There are parts of his books where he comes across as a sociopath.