SMLE Carbine - just a whiff of dragon breath, or a game changer?

[AK-Gunner]

During my trip to South Africa earlier this month I had an opportunity to shoot and evaluate a .303 SMLE Carbine custom built by a South African gunsmith: my bad I can not recall the builder's name, please people involved with the project do feel free to fill in the missing info on this carbine as you see proper.


What caught my eye and could feel with my hands was the excellent overall quality of craftsmanship on every aspect: the wood was nicely refurbished, the brass butt plate was polished, the bolt was polished into buttery smooth operation etc. Unnecessary with a working rifle? Yes, but very noice indeed.


Let's look at some details on this carbine.

The size difference to its big brother is notable.




Yes, it is short.



The polished brass butt plate is a nice detail and the grain on the wood is nicely tinted during the refurbishing.



The bearing surfaces on the bolt have been polished for smooth operation and it is also pleasing to the eye.




The optics is mounted on a length of Picatinny rail which is attached to the barrel. Very clean and robust end result.




The front sight attachment and the shortened handguard looks very professional. The craftmanship doesn't radiate 'I did it myself!'





My plan was to shoot from prone first, then freehand standing, but the vegetation between 100m line and the targets made this impossible.


Nope, can not do it...



So off to plan B, which was instead of shooting prone, was to shoot awkward leaning on to a solid concreate table. Not perfect, but solid enough foundation to shoot well enough to see if there are differences with the performance between the original SMLE and the Carbine. I wanted to shoot control groups first and just to get feel of full length, full power SMLE. The balance of the original SMLE is pretty good, not way too nose heavy and its overall weight makes controlling the rifle easy. Combined with the fast action bolt the rifle is fun to shoot.


Shooting for control.



Just can not miss with this rifle. SMLE is one of my all time favourite military bolt action rifles.



My groups were in the two to three MOA range which was quite predictable considering the circumstances and the ammo we were using. Then it was time to bring in the Carbine. It's balance and overall handling characteristics are impeccable, very much unlike a musket like its longer brother or even a longer assault rifle like M16A2 feel like. Very impressive indeed.


The carbine was not sighted in, so we used a 'buddy system' to adjust the red dot POA to meet the POI: I was holding the rifle steady as Camo adjusted the dot until it was over the bullet holes on the target.



I could not feel any notable difference with the recoil between these two rifles.




The Carbine needs a riser for a proper cheek weld because of the higher offset of the optics, but I could compensate this with my support hand.


I did not see any difference with the groupings between these two rifles in conditions which emulated pretty well real life situations.

Shooting offhand standing was fun, the well balanced carbine is fast handling and target acquisition is extremely fast with this naturally pointing firearm. Didn't even feel the need for a riser, since my stance was pretty much the same as with an M4 carbine would be. The recoil was easy to handle, there was no apparent 'fireball muzzle flash', just a puff of smoke me grinning like an idiot while I ran the bolt for the next shot.







I did not find any difference at all with running the non-polished and polished bolt because I always run the bolt like a mean it: hard, very hard all the way to the end both ways. Running the bolt like this it doesn't matter if the bolt feels like it was floating through butter or if there was a fistful of sand inside the action, it just runs.




The verdict

As usual, I don't have anything vested in liking or disliking this weapon, I'm just sharing my impressions and first hand experience with it.

The good:

- is fast and easy to manipulate and to point even in confined environments
- is about the size of an AK but packs way more punch with standard .303 ammo, even more with handloads
- a .303 bullet in the thoracic cavity of a man will end his ability to do more or less anything... ever again, hence 10 rounds is plenty. Use soft points for your convenience
- ammo is relatively easily available(?)
- is not too heavy to carry day in, day out
- since it's based on the SMLE you can find spare parts and every gunsmith can fix it
- it's well balanced between the support and firing hands, hence it's easy pointing and easy to hold on at the target
- the polished bolt ran very slick, but it merely matters when you are showing the rifle to your envious buddies
- fits in an inconspicuous sports equipment bag for surreptitious carry
- it looks very nice in Instagram

The bad:

- loses some of the punch of a full-house surplus and factory hunting .303 loads
- the Picatinny rail is a bit ugly, but that's just me
- you need a sacrificial rifle to come up with one, but then again, there must be many with bad barrel at the muzzle end

Rumour control:

- no, the muzzle blast is not an issue, even less so if you handload
- no, the recoil is not unbearable, could not tell the difference really, if shooting this carbine hurts you, you should work on your shooting technique
- no, the bang wasn't that much worse than with a full length rifle, but then again, I am an artillery officer with hearing issues
- no, it's not less accurate, barrel length has nothing to do with accuracy


For whom is this carbine for?

I don't feel the need myself, since I have what I need in this class of weapons, but there are two main uses I can think of. The first one is the obvious 'bush hunt'. Fast handling for the brief encounters with the game, and the .303 from this barrel is potent enough to bring down almost any non-dangerous game animal. And then there's the reason which probably many don't think about:

Self defence.

Why not really? You can carry this carbine discretely in a bag on you shoulder with 10 punchy rounds in the magazine or when the situation gets bad, carry it open and let either its generally recognisable authority speak for itself or fire for effect to as far as you can identify your target. Put a variable scout scope on it and extend your effective range up to five to six hundred meters. It really is a badass dressed in bikinis, you'll just have to see the potential of a full power rifle in this form. I do tip my hat to those who came up with the idea of this particular carbine. Or 'scout rifle' if you will.



Thank you KK20, Camo and the good folks from Sas to make this eval happen

[Ds J]

For once I need to brag a little bit ... I am very much guilty for the existence of that 303 scout rifle as I showed a photo of another one to the current owner.

My own project 303 is still in baby shoes.

[Stevin]

Ahh, Funky Town

[MrK]

Plenty of SMLE "bakkie" guns floating around out there. Shortened barrels, folding stocks and suppressors are just about standard. I recall some being cut down to as short as 16".

Nice write up AK!

[janfred]

Not to be a party pooper, but that does not appear to have originated from a SMLE. That seems to be one of the earlier No4 Mk1 rifles.

[CorditeCrazy]

It is indeed a No4 rifle.

[bluefronted]

Nice pics and a good review / write up

[AK-Gunner]

It is indeed a No4 rifle.

My apologies, I'm using the term SMLE like some people are calling every AK-family rifle an 'AK-47' which is my pet peeve. My bad and thank you guys, now I stand corrected

And thank you for the kind response

[janfred]

I would be interested to know how much velocity you lose by chopping the barrel this short.

Also, is tbe picatinny rail fixed to the barrel?

[oafpatroll]

I would be interested to know how much velocity you lose by chopping the barrel this short.

Also, is tbe picatinny rail fixed to the barrel?

It's not for 303 but this experiment may provide an indication of what could be expected.

https://rifleshooter.com/2014/12/308...ty-28-to-16-5/