Large Fierce Mammal

No.4 Mk.1* rifles manufactured by Savage for lend lease were marked with the squared “S” ahead of the model number, and clearly emblazoned as “US PROPERTY” even though nobody expected or wanted them back. (Source: JoeSalter.com)

The first firearm I came to own was a Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1* service rifle built in 1942 by the Savage Arms Company as part of the U. S. lend lease programme in aid of the British war effort against Nazi Germany. In 1973, at the age of 16 and with the approval of my parents, I spent over an hour carefully selecting it with the aid of WW2 veteran Lester Beck, owner of Vet’s Surplus in Lunenburg, from among his extensive stock. I can still remember the scent of Mr. Beck’s stock room, and the way handling those old weapons made my hands smell. A heady mixture of gun oil, grease, and history.

Choice made, I paid a hard earned $25.00, bid Mr. Beck good day, and set off to carry my rifle the four blocks home in the middle of a business day that invited the kind of vehicle and pedestrian traffic one would expect in what was then an exceptionally prosperous town. As I walked I carried the rifle in my right hand, and in my left a paper bag containing its bolt and five rounds of ancient .303 British ammunition — the cartridges a gift thrown in because Mr. Beck had a policy of never letting anyone walk out of his shop with a firearm absent means of making it go bang.

My trip was uneventful with the only interruption being another store owner who charged out his door wanting to take a look at the rifle. No police intervened or were even alerted. No shots were fired. No lives were lost.

A condition of parental permission to acquire a rifle that had been the primary service weapon of British and Commonwealth armies through both world wars was that I learn to use it safely, and in this endeavour I was more than amply served by living next door to, and being held in the esteem of, a Gentleman of whom I have previously spoken. Charles Kenneth Knickle, known to his friends as Bill, served throughout WW2 in the Royal Canadian Army, finishing his service as a small arms instructor to war’s end. If ever there was a Man qualified to teach a lad the musketry of the Lee Enfield, he was it. To this day I never handle any firearm, load or fire a shot without hearing his voice, and with the express intention of being True to what he taught me.

I still have that rifle, and while I would be surprised if in its time in service in the hands of other Men it wasn’t used to end the lives of enemy soldiers, all I can speak to with certainty is that it and I have been instrumental in respectfully taking those of four Deer.

With the exception of Canadian Rangers serving in northern regions who still use it to this day due to its superiority over more “modern” options under arctic conditions, Canada retired the Lee Enfield as an item of general issue in favour of the semi-automatic FN FAL after its service in the Korean War. The result was many tens of thousands of Lee Enfields pouring into the civilian market. Some were mere relics unsafe to even consider firing, others like mine, remained in their well maintained though battle scarred and eminently fireable condition, but many of the low mileage examples were commercially modified into effective big game rifles either through having most of their all encompassing military wood furniture removed to make for a lighter sportier package, or by being fully refinished, tapped and drilled for scope mounting, and rebedded in beautifully checkered walnut Monte Carlo stocks. To this day, the .303 British cartridge, fired from some variant of Lee Enfield, can be seen in the field in any big game season in Canada.

The care and feeding, proper shooting, and maintenance of a wooden stocked rifle, particularly one of this vintage, requires dedication to what it means to be a Marksman. More on this as we progress in these considerations.