Historic SMLE “Mad Minute” at 300 yard target

[@dannyw.814]

Excellent shooting and outstanding bolt manipulation. I don't believe most individuals realize the skills involved in your display. Spot on!!

[@chrismair8161]

I do. I own my Grandfathers Rifle.

[@dukkha62]

I had an uncle in the Australian Army who served in the Korean war and he told me that while there was no official requirement for a soldier to attempt the mad minute, most soldiers (who were WWII vets anyway) would give their best to try and break the record - and just as well they did. During one battle when there were human waves of Chinese rushing their entrenched position he heard his NCO call out "mad minute fire - commence". Apparently the slaughter was so horrendous that the numerically superior Chinese were driven back and rounds were eventually cooking off in the chambers of the SMLEs. At this stage the order was given to fix bayonets and advance at the charge while the terrified Chinese tried to hide in long grass or behind hay stacks.

[@michaelcarey3105]

You're twice as fast with that #1 rifle than I am with my M1A, maybe more so! Great shooting and video!

[@bsabiker-d7z]

Hi Bret, just found your video and thoroughly enjoyed you trying to shoot the SMLE. Like you I have a 1941 Lithgow model and used to shoot the Mad Minute competition at Bisley over 20 years ago when I lived in the UK. We started with an empty rifle laid on the ground with lots of clips of ammo beside it, the target was a charging man one at 200 yards and on the command commence the shooter would lay down and load and shoot as quickly as possible . It is a long time ago and my memory can be bad these days but I would normally get off about 20 rounds with most hitting the target. I also did this comp. using my .577/450 Martini Henry rifle and normally get off 13 rounds - and then had to shake my brain back in to position.🤣🤣🤣 These days I have a problem just trying to shoot prone slowly never mind doing a Mad Minute. The British Expedition Force of 1914 in the early days of the war at the Battle of Le Cateau stopped the advancing German army with rapid fire (which was part of their training) but had to move on because of the shear number of soldiers against them. But the German officers thought that we had lots of machine guns and couldn't believe it was just rifle fire. General Horace Smith - Dorian, who was in charge of the infantry, was true proponent of the SMLE rifle, unlike 'Butcher Haig'

[@nomadpi1]

The SMLE shows that the British did make an effective battle rifle.

[@presidentlouis-napoleonbon8889]

Great video that actually follows the British military standard manual.

[@mikeryan9479]

Great video Brett and congratulations on the release of your new book.

[@nigel900]

A minute of madness is about all you can afford with the cost and scarcity of .303 ammo…

[@docholiday3800]

Facts

[@thinkfocus]

Great work and very inspiring Brett. Using the Hornady Cam-lock puller, I busted down some 1956 MKVII to make dummy rounds to practice this. I think I need to solder the bullets into the cases, as they pushed back in. But I found rapid reload and rapid fire are HARD to do well.

[@jasondarby2749]

Nice shooting. You easily exceeded the rapid fire standard of 15 rds in one minute. Something I ran across on a British Lee - Enfield site suggested that there was a problem wit some of the magazines not reliably being loadable with two full chargers. So it was suggested to load one charger, fire one or two rounds and then load another. Might be something to consider if your Lithgow has a less than mint magazine.

[@nomadpi1]

The difference in what you suggested is the difference between a hot barrel and a cold barrel. Something artillery and tank gunners are familiar with.

[@samuel10125]

I remember hearing a story from the early days of WW1 when British soldiers first encountered German forces they fired so quickly the Germans thought they where being shot at by machine guns.

[@geezerp1982]

dont tell the liberals or the UK D.O.J this or they scream to ban bolt action assault rifles

[@samuel10125]

@geezerp1982 Shhhhh stop giving them tag lines "fully semi-automatic" was bad enough.

[@chrisjones6736]

​@@geezerp1982ha!

[@leighrate]

Fired 50 rounds. Killed 37 Bosche. I'd consider that a good days work.

[@Nords1982]

Amazing, after watch many video' this one is king of them all. You got skills

[@papercartridges6705]

I'm going to try it again, with a better set up. Shooting from the prone, at a target uphill, was very awkward. But I don't know if I'll ever approach the record, Captain Wallingford must have been half-man half-beast.

[@petercollingwood522]

Interesting. The picture of Wallingford with his tunic emblazoned with badges and medals shows a different rifle. Lee Metford. I wonder if that was the rifle he used for his range exploits?

[@chrisjones6736]

Outstanding bolt skills. Are you using your trigger finger to pull the trigger or your middle finger? I can't tell from the video. I have never attempted this shoot and wonder if using trigger finger for the bolt might speed things up.

[@simonblair-beal3952]

Fantastic effort, the Brilliant SMLE. By the way, here in Australia, Lithgow is pronounced "Lithgo". Great video

[@papercartridges6705]

Didn’t know that, thanks! It is my favorite rifle.

[@martinpanks992]

No other rifles action comes even close to the speed and smoothness of the Lee Enfield SMLE.

[@papercartridges6705]

It’s definitely a sweet action. The Krag is pretty dang smooth too. For being essentially a “first generation” military bolt rifle, the SMLE soldiered on for a long time!

[@windogendoors7566]

@@papercartridges6705 I second that the Krag is a very smooth action. I love it.

[@geezerp1982]

@@papercartridges6705 the only rifle to beat the lee enfield is the garand - with its self loading action

[@stephenmcmanua6251]

great shooting, I'm with you guys on the Snoxall record, Wallingford was a documented combat soldier as well as shooting in the Olympics. Only advice I can give on speed would be to learn to stop pulling your head back while working the bolt as it shouldn't be required if your buttstock is the right length for you but that would only add perhaps 1 round per minute

[@papercartridges6705]

I have a lot of bad habits I need to fix! I’m used to shooting Mausers and they have a longer bolt throw and I have to move my head. I try to remember that I don’t have to do that with the enfield but I always forget and go back to habit. Guess I just need to shoot more! Thanks for the comment, we are definitely on the same page.

[@barrytaylor6565]

well done, first one ive seen for a long time shooting 303 corrsectly.

[@fredflintstome6532]

Bloody good effort! Well done from Australia

[@papercartridges6705]

Thanks 👍

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

Snoxall most certainly existed. For example, I tracked down a newspaper article where he was cited in the divorce of another instructor. Whether he held any sort of record though, well I have no idea.

[@chrisjones6736]

You can't leave that story hanging, please spread the gory detail.

[@Oligodendrocyte139]

@chrisjones6736 The Essex Chronicle didn't do much for gory detail......😂. The newspaper article is from 11 Feb 1921 and is actually filed as the Chelmsford Chronicle (probably changed names after 1921). The title is Officer Correspondent, "Gallivanting to Dances". William Neal, an ex-sergeant major, sued his wife for divorce on the grounds of adultery. In 1916 he was a sergeant instructor under Snoxell, who was then a sergeant major instructor. The article is too long to copy but adultery was admitted by both his wife and Snoxell. The divorce was granted. As far as I remember they got married afterwards. I tracked them on Ancestry.

[@ogilkes1]

Very fine exercise. Thanks.

[@johnhess351]

The British rifle company was the finest infantry combat unit in the world in 1908. You also pre-empt many comments by cleverly avoiding showing the detail of your bolt cycling technique. Very good effort, but maintaining the sight picture and keeping rifle on target between shots is something that Sgt Major did. He must have been shooting cross dominant or wild-eyed to accomplish this. I would suggest palming the bolt instead of gripping it, turning the head and maintaining sight picture with right eye, and using third finger on trigger after first round may increase speed. You can also tune the stripper clips with needle nose pliers and a small file to improve insertion. The Sgt Major also had the ham-steak-size calloused hands of a lumberjack and probably was using the strap wrapped on his fore arm to help stabilize the barrel as well as a sandbag.

[@Schlachtschule]

Great video! Is there any chance the SGM Wallingford's rifle was in any way special? Could it have been accurized in some way, or "slicked up" to speed the action somehow?

[@papercartridges6705]

I am not sure, those are great questions! We do know that the rifle was fast and accurate, and if he was reloading that quickly, the charger clips must have been smooth and clean.

[@sinisterthoughts2896]

Impressive shooting!

[@audraserbus8341]

39 hits inside 16'' at 200 yards bulletin.accurateshooter.com/tag/mad-minute-challenge/

[@drboris01]

You have the green cadet band on yours too

[@papercartridges6705]

Lithgow 1941. It’s a very nice rifle.

[@drboris01]

@@papercartridges6705 I have a 1916 Enfield that found its way to Australia, probably at the end of WW1. It was FTR'd at Lithgow in 1944 and issued to the cadet corps. The green band denotes "Cadet issue, safe for ball ammunition"

[@jamesross1799]

There very definitely was a "mad minute " in the british army pre ww1 and up to the present. Most soldiers could probably manage around 8 to 12 12 of course requiring a re load. I'm talking properly aimed shots on target.

[@fishyc150]

Did they never just change the complete mag for a preloaded one? What is the point of a detachable mag if it's not used?

[@papercartridges6705]

The magazine detached for cleaning and maintenance. In very early British magazine rifles, the magazines were actually connected to the rifle by a little chain! In the late 19th century and early 20th, magazines were expensive and time consuming to make. Before machine stamping was developed, each magazine was soldered together by a worker. With smaller capacities (like 5 to 10 rounds) it was just as fast, or even faster, to reload with charger clips.

[@fishyc150]

@@papercartridges6705 thank you, I'd always wondered about that!

[@anglerjj3089]

this was the hell of a shooting 👍

[@AndrewCrowl-i2j]

303Vic Australia NO4 (New)................did you grease bolt up before action..? did you put any vas on your parm.. did you make shore you loaded all stripper clips best posable. did you make shore The Lips on your MAG are best posable..If Not Dont Start.....Or else you can get very close .....OR make it...............TRY HARDER ....or low velos ammo

[@samlincoln]

Solid effort, mate.

[@papercartridges6705]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@murrayappleton4106]

Well done, no shame in your attempt of this challenge.

[@TheMwarrior50]

0:40 Audio is.... debateable

[@papercartridges6705]

I know... I may have to do a voiceover eventually. Whenever there is any wind at all, my cheap microphone fails.

[@GizmoDuck_1860]

I both love and hate the SMLE. Being British, I feel I have to like shooting it and I'm not that bad of a shot with mine, but there's just something that doesn't... fit when I shoulder it, maybe I need a different butt length. I've shot the Mad Minute with mine, and no, no may not ask the results 😆 though I did outshoot a guy who has a scoped 7.62mm in hitting an A4 piece of paper at 200 yards, the fact that he hadn't zerod in his scope is not a factor... 😁

[@papercartridges6705]

My SMLE fits me naturally and perfectly which is why I think I like it so much.

[@fredricknolan3905]

My No.4 could hold 11 in the mag and 1 in the pipe. If I had known about stripper clips then I probably would have tryed doing a mad minute in a offhand position.

[@papercartridges6705]

The trick is to polish the interior of the clips very slightly with some steel wool and light oil. The cartridges will slide through them like greased butter.

[@texrifleman]

KZbin SAFETY POLICE ACCEPT YOUR CLEAR WEAPON! Carry on.

[@jusportel]

Good to see someone with proper shooting technique, elbow directly under the rifle. Always bugs me to see people holding the rifle like a shotgun! 😺

[@TheMwarrior50]

"Union infantry at the battle of the Somme"

[@papercartridges6705]

That’s my US Army Ordnance Department kepi. Its what Ordnance officers would have worn in the Civil War.

[@jjohnston94]

I wouldn't have commented at all, but for your snotty "preemption". Shoot that well with human waves of Turks coming at you, the way Wallingford must have.