Full-length Lee-Enfield .303 service rifles have been known and beloved by generations of Australian shooters, to the point where it’s a safe bet that pretty much every type of game or feral pest on the continent has been taken by a .303 round at some point.
The SMLE and its WWII development, the Rifle No 4, are iconic firearms, but they’re also very heavy – great for standing up to the knocks and rigours of a battlefield, as well as absorbing recoil, not great for carting on a hunting trip through the bush for a great length of time.
Civilians solved that problem by sporterising the rifles — cutting down the woodwork to reduce the weight and make the rifle easier to handle.
However, the military needed something a bit less ad-hoc and began developing an official carbine version of the No 4, which had been adopted as the standard British service rifle in November 1939.
Development of a shorter and lighter rifle for use in the Far East theatre was under serious consideration by June 1943, and by December that year the Royal Ordnance Factory at Fazakerley, UK, had been asked to produce 1000 carbine versions of the No 4 Mk I for trials and testing purposes.
By 21 March 1944, most of the quirks had been ironed out and Fazakerley began full-scale production of the new carbine rifles, officially designed Rifle, No 5 Mk I, joined later by BSA from its factory at Shirley.
The name Jungle Carbine is almost entirely colloquial. It was never used in official documentation or reports while the rifle was being developed.
The No 5 Mk I was based on the No 4 Mk I action, with several changes made to reduce weight and make the rifle more effective in jungle and bush situations.
The most obvious is the shortened woodwork, similar to that found on sporterised SMLE and No 4 Lee-Enfields, along with the flash-hider on the barrel, and a buttstock with the sling attachment on the side, rather than the bottom.
Some fore-ends are found with a metal cap, while others lack this refinement.
These changes give the rifle its distinct and instantly recognisable appearance, the flash-hider in particular being particularly distinctive.
The rear sights are only graduated to 800 yards instead of the 1300 yards on a No 4 Mk I; most Jungle Carbine sights have a micrometer-adjustable range setting.
Working on the theory that “ounces turn into pounds” (as it was in those days), the bolt-handle has been hollowed out, and scallops of metal have been removed from the area where the barrel connects to the action as well as the rear of the action behind the charger bridge. The buttstock also has a large cavity in it as a weight-saving exercise.
As a result of the shorter length and weight-saving features, the No 5 Mk I weighs 3.2kg, comparing favourably with the 4.1kg of the No 4 Mk I.
Because of the flash hider, the Jungle Carbine has its own bayonet, which looks a lot like the later L1A1 SLR bayonet, except it has a larger attachment ring to go over the mouth of the flash hider cone.
Original Jungle Carbine bayonets are uncommon and very expensive — almost as much as the rifles themselves — but high-quality reproductions have been produced by Windlass Steelcrafts in India for some years now.
A grenade-launching attachment was also developed for the rifle, but does not appear to have seen much use.
At least 170,807 Jungle Carbine rifles were produced by ROF Fazakerley, while BSA’s Shirley factory produced 81,329.
Production ended in December 1947 partly over concerns about accuracy and zeroing issues with the rifles (more on that later).
While the Jungle Carbine was designed during WWII, and first went into production in late 1944, there’s little evidence the rifles actually made it to the Far East theatre, despite them being designed for use there.
They were first known to have been used by British 1st Airborne Division forces occupying Norway after the German surrender in May 1945. The British troops had been issued with the rifles due their obvious usefulness for airborne troops, and while a fight was expected, the German soldiers occupying Norway surrendered peacefully.
Jungle Carbines were reportedly popular with troops, who appreciated the lighter weight and easier handling of the shorter rifle.
Most No 5 Mk I rifles were sent ‘East of Suez’, seeing plenty of front-line use in the Indonesian National Revolution (1945-1949), the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), the Korean War, and the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya (1952-1960).
As with the various other .303 designs, many continued to pop up in various conflicts throughout the remainder of the 20th Century.
The Kenyan-based King’s African Rifles were issued the No 5 Mk I as their standard rifle during the 1950s, and quite a lot of Jungle Carbines ended up in India, either from Indian soldiers who had been issued them during the Indonesian National Revolution, or as arms provided in the years following Indian Independence in 1947.
Australian troops in the Malayan Emergency, particularly the Second Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, were issued Jungle Carbines from British stores, and found it particularly effective in the jungles of the Malayan Peninsula.
WANDERING ZERO?
One of the most persistent myths regarding the Jungle Carbine is that of the wandering zero, an alleged penchant for not holding zero, especially at longer ranges.
Debate about the issue has been raging in the military rifle collecting community for decades, and the current understanding seems to be that a small number of the rifles were affected by the problem, likely caused by manufacturing issues and the flex caused by lightening cuts made to the action.
This is further confirmed by reports from British and Commonwealth armourers in Malaya in the late 1940s and 1950s, who found that replacing the Jungle Carbine action with a regular No 4 action solved (or mitigated) most of the issue.
The British Ministry of Defence did look into the wandering zero issue just after WWII and again in the early 1950s and conceded there might be something to the complaints, but with a semi-automatic rifle inevitably about to become the military’s standard-issue rifle, it wasn’t considered worth thoroughly investigating or trying to fix it — beyond discontinuing the Jungle Carbine in December 1947 and switching production back to the Rifle No 4.
Anecdotally, extremely few of the Jungle Carbines still around today have been reported to have the wandering zero issue, and it’s quite likely the issue (and the number of rifles affected) was played up somewhat to hasten the introduction of a semi-auto rifle by the British military.
SHOOTING THE JUNGLE CARBINE
The Jungle Carbine uses the same action as the Lee-Enfield Rifle No 4 Mk I, and features the same 10-round magazine loaded via 5-round charger clips.
The Rifle No 5 Mk I handles extremely well and is fantastic for hunting in scrub and bush, as well as over shorter ranges generally — basically anywhere you’d use a Winchester Model 1894 or a Ruger Gunsite Scout rifle.
The ghost-ring battle sights work well for quick target acquisition at closer ranges, while the flip-up sights allow for longer ranges, although realistically you’re unlikely to be firing a Jungle Carbine with iron sights much beyond 300m, which is the battle-sight range.
Recoil, at least in my experience, is on par with the regular Lee-Enfield; by modern standards even the Jungle Carbine has some weight to it which helps absorb recoil. The unusual rubber butt plate fits well into the shoulder but doesn’t really absorb recoil. Apparently it had some beneficial effect back when the rifles were first made, but age has hardened the rubber.
While the Jungle Carbine quite happily shoots commercial .303 ammo, many enthusiasts of the cartridge tend to reload their own rounds to keep costs down. This also means they can develop a load for their specific rifle (it may prefer 150gn projectiles over the 174gn or 180gn ones).
Accuracy-wise, at regular hunting distances the rifles perform as well as the No 4 rifles they are based on. While the sights are graduated to 800 yards, no-one is trying to shoot a Jungle Carbine that far and even if they were, they wouldn’t seriously expect much in the way of accuracy anyway because of the distance.
Whether you’re looking for a military surplus rifle ideal for bush and scrub hunting, looking for something different for Service Rifle competitions, or are a collector looking for an important piece of Lee-Enfield history, the Rifle No 5 Mk I Jungle Carbine ticks a lot of boxes and remains one of the most sought-after Lee-Enfield rifles more than 75 years after production ended.
FURTHER INFORMATION
A lot has been written and filmed about the Jungle Carbine over the years, with Ian Skennerton’s books The Lee-Enfield and Small Arms Identification Series No. 4 — .303 Rifle, No. 5 Mk I arguably the definitive texts on the subject.
From a video perspective, Ian McCollum’s Forgotten Weapons video on the Jungle Carbine is an excellent overview of the rifle, while British Muzzleloader’s The No 5, Mk I Lee-Enfield: A Comparison with the No 4 video is a superb practical comparison of the two rifles — including their shooting performance.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Calibre: .303 British
- Action: Bolt
- Magazine: 10 round magazine, charger loaded
- Barrel Length: 50.8cm (20.5in)
- Overall length: 100.3cm (39.5in)
- Weight: 3.2kg (7lb 1oz)
0 Comments