< Previous The aforementioned A.G. Banks, an officer in the Royal Engineers, well-known author of much shooting material and contributor of many articles to the S.M.R.C. journal, wrote further in the Winter 1946 issue of the general lack of rifles and of the development of the new No.6. His paragraph on “Equipment” is most informative, and confirms that the No.6 rifles were then just that, an independent model that went no further than effectively provide B.S.A. with the experience and information they needed to design another similar .22 rifle along the lines of the .303” No.5 Service Rifle. The rifle with which B.S.A. came up was the .22 Rifle No.5 that was only ever produced in a batch of one hundred trials models.Winter, 1946-47.T H E R I F L E M A N55record of work done during war years'■■aining of the Board's personnel. Police andR a n g e i n a u g u r a t e d a t B a k e r S t r e e tsecretarv h/inl t t! r suitable for this work, thesecretary tjeing in charge of the operations.r°^ 'h® E.xecutive Committee placing thet^he w?r ° disposal of the Board for the period offio.i'^J ® date the training of the L.P.T.B. H.G. (41 to 46 and•I numhpr f small-bore shooting was commenced, and" " " " > ■ " " " ■ »!'owiT O'fo'll«se»«re<lisnianUcdoftraiiiing the Home Guard in miniature rifle shoot-mg was overcome by the loan of 80 .22 B.S.A. Vickers, etc riflesi F n l w e l l T r o l l e y B u s ' C l u b 'the Building Dept. Club and the secretary's rifles. 'ahs^ir^ fm" die Home Guard was equalled by the«■; ammunition ; in the early days of training the supplyfroin the War Office ceased, in fact it never fairly startedine Secretary was able to place an order for 500,000 rounds ofVr]'Tl"Il"ion, and this, with the routine supplies of the clubin Club with membership of over 5,000, is the largest clubservices P'^y^d its part in training men for variousThe Board maintained for as long as necessary a staff' of 24 in-fn V" supervision of the Secretary (who was appointedfVn!n K- captain), and the assistant secretary, who was secondedo .j!?'® ^'"dmary duties with the Board to deal with the work of squadding and records. nt May, 1940, to 28th October, 1944, attendances at the ranges were as detailed below. Baker Street Range Other Ranges BAKER STREET RANGE Rine T h o m p s o n a n d S t e n G u n s . . . ! " ] Browning Automatic Rifle T _ X T ^ R E V O L V E R ■L.T. Home Guard Other Home Guard Units L.P .T .B. Staf f ;;; Inter Services Research Bureau Royal Air Force personnel Norwegian Forces War Office, Transit Camp, R.A.p!c. !!. Various Allied Forces—Dutch, American, etc. .22 RIFLE Members of L.T. Rifle Club other than Home Guard 73,751 100,907 174,658 46,908 6,403 1,214 1,603 297 1.897 5,325 2,224 1,7.30 419 503 5,228 73,751 RANGES Baker Street.—The Board has agreed to continue the lease of Baker Street Range on the old terms, and arrangements have been made for the range to be open daily on weekdays. Sidcup Garage Range.—The estate agent of the Board advised th® secretary of the Club that the Board was giving up the lease of the land on which the range is situated, and on behalf of the Club it was agri^d that the range should be retained and the lease transferred to the rifle club. It was recommended that the covering of the firing point be im proved and a small hut provided for the Range Officer • also that the question of lighting of at least eight points at the butts and at th<. firing point be considered. Fulweil Trolley Bus Depot Range.—It was recommended that the Board b® approached respecting the use of additional space at the rear ol the firing point, and if this can be made available, consideration should be given to the question of making this a district range A wooden structure to be obtained from Army stock or perhans from a wartime building not now required by the Board • the dimen sions being approximately 60 feet by 20 feet, divided into club room armoury and locker room combined, and provision for Ranee Officpr' Hoddesdon and Hertford Ranges.—The Hoddesdon outdoor i^ee IS situated between Hoddesdon and Haileybury College, on i cim originally owned by the Hoddesdon Sand and Gravel Co which during the war years, has been used in part as a wartime 'factorv • the occupiers allow.ng us to use the range as before the war ' f a c t S ^ ^ c l o f e f S . ' " ' " ^ ^the Territorial Association had agreed to the use of">= C""-Doinif^nH'^"' Bramley RMd Range.-This range, with eight firingCouncil ^""®'^®> 'S held under rental from the Ealing Boroughattenlinn "tembers ; this should receive immediateaccnmrnxxr,- ® ?lways a waiting list of clubs aaxious to secureaccommodation at this range.and"p^pr^hnRange.—The arrangement with the HamI T- P A u u i ° range by members of theminiiTmm'r.m r the war period, and the usualminimum rent of £10 per annum paid.p u r c l ? [ f e ' n m m a v a i l a b l e ; m e m b e r s m u s tS u S S e S . ™ ; s " " P - R " S «facife war very little use has been made of thefuture P we look forward to an increase in the nearof Schools Range, Bushey.—By the courtesy of the Governorsof the privilege of using this range by membersI mi u ' addition to the personnel of the L.P.T.B. H Gmembers facilities by Home Guard or ClubDrill Halls.—At the outbreak of war all our agreemen'srifle rnna°"^ Territorial Associations in connection with Drill Hallaction^^na'^' ^teen —This range was unusuable owing to enemy Thrc'ed^^DrilfS t o B r i d g e . - I t h a s n o t b e e n p o s s i b l e measnr^J agreement for the use of this range, and as a temporary Tm^ Rmh arranged at the indoor range at Fulham 1 own oaths on rental basis. at ^Iham'^Ho^u^e'^' he control of Drill Hall ranges will in most cases the TerHt^r-T^A ^ the Territorial Army Cadets and in others section of f Cadets ; as application is made by any will ? I L accommodation in any particular area, steps will be taken to obtain use of the range if possible. . equipment possible, the equipment has been kept in good condition, co^t of K "u Reserve Fund for the replacement and cost of bnngmg the stock of rifles, etc., up to new standard. we hav^° • of Parker-nmng takes several months, and at the moment we have nine rifles at Messrs. Parker-Hale and Sons for overhaul outbreak of war eight S.M.L.E. .22 rifles were f h a t l E ^ ® k r e c o m m e n d e d Tk D be sold as soon as other rifles can be purchased. <?prviof t® bnngmg out a new .22 rifle on the lines of the No. 5 ^ number of these should be purchased as and when iney come on the market. These will be produced in two models—Utility and De-luxe. some nf?hl?'^k''®® k' number of ranges will require replacement, or^cononhc^repafr^^ beyond practical Six new telescopes, war-type issue, have been purchased. COMPETniONS the outbreak of war, competitions practically ceased, hnc- »k • Monthly Spoon Competitions were re-started on a range ,x,;tk ' 'ndividual monthly winners at the respective ranges, together with meinbers making gun score of ICX) shooting oflT at Baker Range each period of six months for the I.C.I, cup, the winner receiving repnca cup as long as these could be obtained and afterwards a prize voucher or cash to value of same. ^ by the I.C.I, to encourage monthly spoon conipetitions ; - on the whole the scheme has been most successful. in the Winter Session of the S.M.R.C. League for 1943-44, 47 teams were entered, and although several teams did not complete t'heir xk ^ result attained was very satisfactory. J f I*"®® teams were entered from Baker Street, but owing to a th 11 ui the first round a fourth team was got together to take up It is not easy to draw a precise conclusion on the number of No.6 rifles produced as prototypes or trials examples, but it seems that development was still taking place late in 1946 after those rifles used in the National Meeting had been assessed. In the event, it is known that the days of the No.6 came to an end around that time. We have never seen one of these rifles other than the one in the Royal Armouries, (which was kindly stripped by their armourer for our detailed photography), although it is possible others lie in some of the military collections such as Warminster or Shrivenham. It would appear that either the number of rifles used at the 1946 meeting was particularly limited. With no others yet surfacing perhaps some were even later destroyed or converted. We know of one other rifle that was one of the development prototypes that came into the hands of a one time employee of the Royal Small Arms Factory. We were given kind permission to strip and photograph this rifle that has been informally given the nomenclature “.22 Rifle No. 5-3/4” as an acknowledgement that it lay in the progression to the final version of the no.6. This latter rifle and its brief history are detailed on our page for the Lee-Enfield No.6 Rifles.Next >