The Point Of The Lee-Enfield Magazine Cutoff, Post-1909

[@MorningGI0ry]

As the ancient philosopher Blokeonrangeius said “I have a loaded rifle”

[@wierdalien1]

TheEtonianGamer and mauser type rifles said in an eh way

[@rman126]

Ha Britishmuzzleloaders and Bloke On The Range! A great combo!

[@sugarnads]

A new superchannel is coalesing... Blokeonthemuzzloadingbeige Huzzah!!! Thatll rightly end those damned mauser boys. Three cheers for The King and the SMLE!!!

[@jekabsojarsulskis9740]

*Takes a chug of beer* Mauser STRONG! MAUSER IS BEST! Joke aside, I would prefer a Mauser rifle do to being sturdier and reliable nature, Gun Jesus did say one malfunction was the SMLE's rifle barrel blowing up(interesting malfunction if you ask me), but wouldn't mind using the SMLE, I would most definitely be afraid to be on the receiving end of those considering how fast can they shoot, cycle and shoot. Still, Mauser is soldier proof. Now where did I put my keg?

[@TwentythreePER]

I love learning about British military doctrine from that era. Bloke On the Range and Britishmuzzleloaders are two of my favorite channels on here so I really enjoyed this one. Really interesting stuff.

[@SNOUPS4]

Thanks to ForgottenWeapons for having brought me here. Nice video!

[@BlokeontheRange]

Did Ian make a reference to this vid that I didn't spot?

[@SNOUPS4]

Indeed! In his last video on the Mark I*

[@BlokeontheRange]

Cool!

[@BlokeontheRange]

Just looked - he referenced British Muzzleloaders (not me).

[@simonferrer]

But Rob at Britishmuzzleloaders referenced you in one of his videos. Now I just have to figure out how to link you to Kevin Bacon :-)

[@petesheppard1709]

The US also used magazine cutoffs, 'to avoid wasting ammo', as I understood it. My early M1903 'Springfield' has one, which also retains the bolt in the rifle

[@petesheppard1709]

Interestingly, the cut-off was retained in the WWII production M1903A3. My guess that removing it and designing a new bolt latch/release was considered more trouble than it was worth.

[@petesheppard1709]

Retaining the cut-off for rifle grenades makes sense. :)

[@hartleymartin]

Loved the "summoning". Gave me a good chuckle.

[@tooyoungtobeold8756]

I have a Mk lll 1917 SMLE, although sadly deactivated and I always wondered what the cut off was for. Thank you.

[@raltgaither]

I love it when great channels collaborate.

[@dermotrooney9584]

Hussah! Facts I didn't know dispelling mini-myths absorbed from old blokes on old ranges. Ten points.

[@Bobbymaccys]

From my experience of shooting the SMLE whenever I have a fully loaded magazine and remove the magazine cut off the first round tends to jump out of kilter due to spring pressure. Not sure if this was a regular occurrence but it has happened to me with various SMLE's. Great video!

[@thedude9036]

I used no 4 E fields for ceremonies as a youth in cadets. We would simply depress the trigger with the bolt open and this would allow the bolt to slide easily foreword with no resistance, and the firing pin would remain foreword

[@john-paulsilke893]

I served in the Canadian army and whilst this was no longer a rifle we used, (we are a backward people but not that backwards). However I did attend many confidence training courses and several included using Lee’s often against modern weapons, (simulations only of course). This was the method taught to make safe, although we were ordered to point at the ground and fire even though they were blanks. (We used MILES systems attached to the rifles and played laser tag essentially).

[@demomanchaos]

You saying they pitted men with Lee's against men with modern firearms in simulated battles? Did they

[@john-paulsilke893]

Yup, if you had position and a good plan you wouldn’t win but you could do some serious damage before retreating. They are called confidence training courses for a reason. I even learned to jump from an airplane even though it wasn’t in my MOS and also got nearly 200hrs of helicopter flight training without my fixed wing/dirgable.

[@demomanchaos]

Honestly I would be really interested in seeing a few of those. I may be in the minority, but I really enjoy seeing mismatches in combat. I am more interested in when two very different styles/weapons clash compared to seeing two similar armies meet (The Greco-Persian Wars are much more interesting than the many battles Athens and Sparta fought against each other).

[@john-paulsilke893]

There are many places in the world where you may find yourself fighting with machine guns and rocket launchers agains ballistas made out of leaf springs from old cars, we had a captured one that was used against some French guys in Gana. Shot the poor guy with a chunk of rebar and caused some serious damage before attacking the rest of the squad with a chunk of sharpened steel. Honestly it wasn’t probably for training but more likely for team building. Kinda like Karl and Ian do with their Two Gun matches.

[@kingherobrin]

Bloke. I would love to see a video on the Enfield Pattern 1914.

[@SinginShooter]

Hit the Patreon.

[@thomaswiemann996]

Agreed :-) Or the Enfield p17

[@johnfisk811]

I think that Rob has been looking at too many episodes of Red Dwarf and is doing Kryten impressions. Well done both of you.

[@john-paulsilke893]

john fisk it’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere.

[@sbamshooting]

And a lovely SBAM Rifle ;-)

[@benh2907]

Very succinct and full explanation, thanks

[@darkspire91]

Who let muzzleloaders stop reloading his brass?

[@tokul76]

Winter is coming. Food dryer is used for other stuff.

[@festungmittlewesten3108]

You guys are awesome.

[@MrMaffy96]

thanks i was really wondering what the magazine cutoff was for

[@boforgault3212]

WORDS OF COMMAND ARE SACROSANCT. I did not watch my buddies die face down in the muck so that this fucking strumpet...

[@admiralpercy]

When men were men and sheep were scared

[@sugarnads]

Feckin brilliant. 😂 I always know its gonna be good when i see 'official' and 'doctrine'.

[@matthewstoddart3552]

The magazine cutoff would be quite useful if you wanted to load the magazine but you wanted want to close the bolt on an empty chamber.

[@alexj727]

I have two 1940 bsa smle's with mag cut offs so they were using them at least up until 1940.

[@neon922]

Awesome video! Didn't know any of this

[@melchung1566]

Years ago i noticed that one of the Mk3#1s i got from century arms had the receiver cut and was drilled for the cut off pivot screw. I ordered a cut off and screw from numrich and installed it. I like it and should practice the 4? conditions of the rifle with cutoff.😊

[@Obyredyll]

BOTR I think one day will must made a video or some of them about Krag rifles here in Italy lol Greatings from Andrea the "Krag Man" lol

[@bluesrocker91]

Using the little finger seems awkward. Why couldn't they just push the rounds down with the thumb of the left hand, and close the bolt with the right hand?

[@benhardsatrio8222]

You would then have to move your left hand to the rear and tuck the stock under the armpit or between arm and torso to both support the weight of the rifle and push down the round into the magazine with the right hand positioned behind the bolt ready to close it partway over the rear of the round, and then return the left hand to its previous position before closing the bolt all the way. With the little finger technique as I was air-doing it, here`s what I notice: - When you go to push the rounds in with the right hand, your little finger is already at the right angle and position to flick the bolt head slightly forward over the rounds in the magazine. Plus even being cock-on-closing, the spring tension doesn`t start until the bolt is almost all the way forward, so until then the bolt is still fairly slick. As demonstrated, one flick is all it takes to ride the bolt head over the rounds preventing them to come up. - This action can be performed smoothly without removing the left hand from where it was once fully drilled, either with the muzzle pointed slightly downward or to the side. This being the old times, men conformed to the machine, not the other way around like we see today. So I think the point here is to safe the rifle quickly and smoothly without fumbling or wasted movement. That being said, it`s probably pointless to emulate in range use unless you`re a real nerd on battery of arms.

[@phaserrifle3]

Would it have also had some utility for firing rifle grenades, allowing single loading of the blank cartridges used for grenade launching, without having to unload your live ammo first?

[@lizchatfield692]

I have a no 1 lee that doesn't have the striper clip guide , came to NZ as club target rifles after rebarreling .

[@BlokeontheRange]

Possibly an Australian club pattern, converted from a Long Lee rather than a No.1

[@HaNsWiDjAjA]

I guess they did not consider having a round in the chamber with the safety on to be safe enough?

[@JenniferinIllinois]

The Bloke got owned by Britishmuzzleloaders. Hehehe...

[@genericpersonx333]

Wow,, I think the French may have had the edge here by simply never having a loaded chamber until one saw Boches...er...hostiles. Would be interesting to see if the French recorded a higher rate of accidental discharges with their doctrine of no manual safeties and only loading on engagement than the British with this convoluted retention of magazine cut-offs with reflexive commands.

[@daskalbdashupfte]

These things! *briiirrbppp!!!*

[@Chlorate299]

Isn't dry firing only a problem with rimfire guns? i.e. without a cartridge in place, the firing pin strikes the breach...

[@john-paulsilke893]

Chlorate I could name about a dozen where this is a problem. For example the Ruger P345 if dry fired without the magazine you will rapidly destroy the firing pin. That’s why this otherwise excellent gun can be bought for so little even in Canada. ($350 was what I paid for my last one and it came with five magazines worth almost $50 each). True this is mostly a myth but my 10/22 has been shot with no repairs for well over 50,000 rounds and every eleventh trigger pull was on an empty magazine, (10rd rotary magazines). Different guns different rules, but what you said is at least 99% true with modern guns but far less true with milsurps and antiques.

[@inspirality]

I snapped the firing pin on my Marocchi O/U shotgun by dry firing. It worked erratically and I couldn't understand what was wrong until I shook it and heard the rattling...

[@sealol5209]

Hey, what's with the round cocking piece? I've noticed a savage no 4 enfield with one too, is that factory or a refurb?

[@robertl6196]

A little too much caffeine? You seem a little twitchy......

[@theoriginaldylangreene]

He did say he was in Italy.

[@Tuning3434]

As expected. Demonetized :S

[@EXO9X8]

So the lebel wasn't alone in this revolutionary feature?

[@thebotrchap]

EX09X8 Magazine cut offs? Far from it, almost all the previous generation of black powder repeating rifles had them.

[@ARCNA442]

Good video, but the idea of training to automatically pull the trigger on an empty chamber seems like asking for accidental discharges.

[@BlokeontheRange]

Then you need to write to the British Army. In the doctrine from the Martini Henry to the present day.

[@hauptmanndosman]

Well now I am going to grill you. With the Lee Enfield pattern of rifle they are refered to as 'chargers clips' or simply chargers, not stripper clips. Why, because they were used to charge the magazine.

[@wierdalien1]

Bloke on the Range its like the insane suppressor business

[@henrynelson11]

is dry firing that problematic on a Lee-Enfield then again...?

[@ManDuderGuy]

That shirt cannot be made safe. Be wary.

[@aaronthurston9210]

I have a #4 mk1* can you tell me where I can find stripper clips, I can’t seem to find them anywhere

[@chexquest87]

You can find them on eBay quite easily. One of many options.

[@aaronthurston9210]

Thank you both for the help, I’ll see what I can find.

[@dermotrooney9584]

Henry Krank (Leeds) just sold me a load and some drill rounds and those nearly-pukka targets.

[@john-paulsilke893]

Canada has truck loads of them as well as SKS stripper clips. I’ve mailed tons to friends in the States.