It occurred to me the other day that I was the first in my family to get into shooting. At 55 I thought back and could not remember any of my family or relatives being hunters or shooters.
Then the deeerrr moment. Even though I am an Aussie living in the U.S., my great, great grandfather on both sides of my family fought in the Civil War with the 15th Massachusetts volunteers and was captured by the south in the battle of Ball's Bluff. My grandfather on my mother's side was in WWI in Europe as a telephone cable guy, running between the trenches and forward command hiding in whatever shell hole they could find. My dad was Australian bomber crew in the Pacific doing daily raids on the Japanese occupying force at Rabaul.
It occurred to me that my great, great grandfather probably was issued a 1861 Springfield, my grandfather a Lee-Enfield SMLE and my father probably had to qualify with a Lee-Enfield also - I don't think the twin .303 Brownings were portable. So in fact I was not the first member of my family to be involved in shooting.
So why not try and collect the same rifles I thought. I know I would only be able to afford a replica Springfield, but what is the chance of finding actual Enfields used in the theaters of battle?
