“Dear Dr Kim:
“Walked into one of my local Merchants Of Death recently. On the wall they had one of the Enfield Mark IV’s you listed in your blog the other day.
“Asked the counter guy if I could walk back there and handle it. His response was yes, and he went with me.
As he watched me handle the ABSOLUTELY buttery smooth action and the beautiful peep site, he said,
“You know the only problem with that?” to which my response was
“.303 ammo” and he nodded his head.
To which I responded:
“I have an Ishapore Enfield in .308, and I love historical firearms.”
He said, “I’d rather have the Ishapore than the Mark IV”. (I’m assuming because of ammo.)
“I don’t have a point. I didn’t walk out with the Mark IV because of $$$$.
“I just wanted to say:
“Fuck the ATF, Fuck the Tax man, Fuck anyone who makes such a wonderful piece unaffordable, Fuck the ammo manufacturers. Basically Fuck Anyone who makes it impossible for me to own such a wonderful piece of history.
“And Fuck You Dr. Kim for letting me know such things exist and now I can no longer live in ignorance.
“And I guess Fuck Me for being too poor to play in the game.”
— Frustrated in Boise.
Dear Frus,
That’s the most interesting request for a loan I’ve ever had.
— Dr Kim
WoW! Look at the chatoyance in that bottom pik.
If you stare at it up close too long you risk the chance of falling in.
I believe that happens when the wood is quarter sawn.
Good grief. Has he never heard of rolling his own ammo? It’s not hard to do, and isn’t even all that expensive to get started in. Heck, a simple Lee Loader and a hammer will suffice.
I adore being able to hand load .303 and 30-06 for the bolt actions, because I can use a 75% Trail Boss load in the military cases. That’s more than enough powder to throw the bullet downrange 100-200 yards but the recoil is next to nothing. Doubt it’d run a Garand, but otherwise my old ladies appreciate the gentler powder charge.
The humble little Lee Loader does open up a world of opportunities, doesn’t it?
I used mine to tailor elk and deer loads for my .270 Winchester. The entire exercise of loading, testing, adjusting loads, retesting, was more fun and more rewarding than a sack of puppies. đ
Right now the hard part seems to be finding brass and primers.
Mine (PF109970, will forget my own birthday first) had a bayonet fitting on the muzzle.
I picked up one of the Ishapore years ago and let me tell you, it is the very embodiment of “Carried a lot but shot a little”. Teh bore is near perfect but the wood is covered in dings and the metal had a thick coat of black paint on every surface, it cleaned up pretty well and is a fabulous shooter.
BTW, here in AZ the trick with surplus arms is to stand it on it’s barrel on a rag, and let the sun melt all the Cosmoline out of it.
I wish 303 ammunition was more readily available. I bought some POF ammo which turns out to be Pakistani for “click and nothing” I still have some Federal ammunition and maybe some South African ammo in the ammo box.
JQ