Lee-Enfield Rifles .22RF Pattern 1914

These Pattern 1914 designated rifles are not to be confused with their .303 counterpart, the famous British designed, and American manufactured, First World War "P'14" rifle that became the Rifle No.3 with the introduction of nomenclature by number in 1926.

Introduced on 24th. May 1915 as the "Rifle, Short, .22-inch, R.F., pattern 1914"

The 'List of Changes in British War Material' - (LOC) No. 17320 reads:

" Converted from Rifles, Short, M.L.E., Converted Marks II and II*.

A pattern of the above-mentioned rifle has been approved to guide conversion as may be ordered.

The conversion consists, generally, in boring out the barrels of rifles,short, M.L.E., converted, Marks II and II*, and fitting and soldering a tube in the barrel; the tube being bored, rifled and chambered to suit the cartridge, .22-inch, R.F., No.1 Mark 1 (LoC 13642), and in converting and supplying the following components-

Bolt-head: Plug fitted and brazed in striker hole; firing pin hole bored and firing pin fitted; and extractor seating lowered.

Extractor: Hook made narrower and radius decreased.

Striker: Conical point removed.

Windguage: Shape of V-notch altered to U, and sighting edge repaired.

New components fitted.

Pin, firing, R.F. rifle, short, Mark I.

Blade, foresight, M.L.E. rifle, short, Mark III, .955-inch

The following components of Rifles, Short, M.L.E., Converted Marks II and II* are not used in this conversion.

Magazine, assembled.

Barleycorn, foresight.

Guide, charger, head, breech bolt.

Screw, stop, charger guide.

Cut-off,

Screw, cut-off.

All other components of the converted rifles are common to rifles, short, M.L.E., Converted, Marks II and II*."

Thus it can be observed that the conversion consisted largely of the barrel sleeving ( see Parker Rifling), bolt-head and firing pin modification, appropriate sight alterations to bring the old rear sight V-notch into line with the then current U-notch along with the foresight height change to take into account the trajectory of the rimfire cartridge, and finally the removal of the magazine cut-off, which became irrelevant once the magazine had its spring and platform removed and became simply a repository for the fired and extracted empty cartridge cases. This last expedient resulted in the tidiest firing points perhaps ever seen up to that point - and indeed possibly since!

At the end of April 1916, a further two models of Pattern rifles were introduced, whilst the aforementioned original Pattern '14 became the Rifle, short, .22-inch, R.F., pattern 1914, No.1.

The first of the new conversions was the Rifle, short, .22-inch, R.F., pattern 1914, No.2 which used as its base arm the .303-inch centre-fire Rifle, short, M.L.E. Marks III and Converted Mark IV. The Short Magazine Lee-Enfields here converted were either the Mk.III or the Cond. Mk.IV, which latter rifle was already a conversion to the short rifle from either a worn or superceded Magazine "Long" Lee-Enfield or Lee-Metford rifle.

The second was the Rifle, long, .22-inch, R.F., pattern 1914 converted from rifles, C.L., M.L.E. Mark I*. ( This parent arm was the "Charger Loading, Magazine Lee-Enfield Mark I*" - colloquially known as the 'Long' Lee-Enfield in the form of the first mark to have the charger loading bridge fitted with a guide for loading cartridges into the magazine from a clip carrying five cartridges.

More information to come shortly

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