L42A1 ENFIELD (U.K.) - The L42A1 was a British Army sniper rifle chambered for the 7.62mm NATO cartridge which entered service in 1970. It served until replacement by the Accuracy International L96 in 1985. It was the last model in a long and famous line of Lee bolt action rifles using the rear-locking action designed by James Paris Lee to serve the British Army, which had first entered service in the Lee-Metford rifle of 1888. During its British Army service, the L42A1 saw active service during several conflicts including the Dhofar Rebellion in Oman, The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the Falklands War and Gulf War. The L42A1 was a 7.62Ã—51mm NATO conversion of the .303 British chambered Lee-Enfield No. 4 Mk1 and No. 4 Mk1 WWII-era British sniper rifles, which had remained in service for some time after the L1A1 variant of the 7.62mm FN FAL replaced the No.4 Lee Enfield as the standard service rifle in 1957.
LEE -ENFIELD - a bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle was the main firearm used by the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century. It was the British Army's standard rifle from its official adoption in 1895 until 1957. A redesign of the Lee-Metford, the Lee-Enfield superseded the earlier Martini-Henry, Martini-Enfield, and Lee-Metford rifles. It featured a ten-round box magazine which was loaded with the .303 British cartridge manually from the top, either one round at a time or by means of five-round chargers. The Lee-Enfield was the standard issue weapon to rifle companies of the British Army and other Commonwealth nations in both the First and Second World Wars. Although officially replaced in the UK with the L1A1 SLR in 1957, it remained in widespread British service until the early/mid-1960s and the 7.62 mm L42 sniper variant remained in service until the 1990s. As a standard-issue infantry rifle, it is still found in service in the armed forces of some Commonwealth nations, notably with the Indian Police and Bangladesh Police, which makes it the longest-serving military bolt-action rifle still in official service. The Canadian Forces' Rangers Arctic reserve unit still use Enfield No.4 rifles as of 2012, with plans announced to replace the weapons sometime in 2014 or 2015. Total production of all Lee-Enfields is estimated at over 17 million rifles.
** FILE ** In this Nov. 3, 2012, file photo, Britain's Prince Harry, right, or just plain Captain Wales as he is known in the British Army, races out from the VHR (very high readiness) tent to scramble his Apache with fellow pilots, during his 12-hour shift at the British-controlled flight-line in Camp Bastion southern Afghanistan. (AP Photo/ John Stillwell, Pool, File)