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Roy, you always start good threads!

Regarding King Solomon's Mines from 2004 shown above, I don't know this movie, but in the picture you can see the cutout in the fore-end where the charger bridge was supposed to go, which makes me think it's a converted military rifle rather than a commercial sporter. On the other hand, the bolt looks like a lee Speed bolt. So...who was the prop master for this film and how do we contact him?

A Lee Speed film appearance that is generally overlooked is the famous and excellent film "Breaker Morant." There was a thread on this a few years ago (http://forums.gunboards.com/showthread.php?413830-Adhere-to-Breaker-s-Rule-303&p=3493636#post3493636), in which I commented:

In the film, when Morant says “We caught them and we shot them under Rule 303!” notice that there is a cutaway shot close up of the rifle, specifically the butt socket…and in an inevitable (and unfortunately necessary) concession to those in the audience who don’t spend a lot of time with Lee Enfields… the butt socket is marked “.303” just so audiences will get the reference! They must have actually added that to the prop rifle, because we all know that the caliber is not marked in that location. Also, just FYI, the particular prop rifle is a LEE-SPEED (service pattern version rather than sporter). I never realized this until I wondered about the “.303” marking and actually freeze-framed the thing. There are no government markings in that location.

As for Morant's declaration: “We caught them and we shot them under Rule 303!” I quite naturally assumed this was the contribution of a witty script writer, because it sounds too contrived to be true, but I was wrong. Morant actually said this in the trial, at least according to George Witton (who, although he is naturally a biased witness, is still an eyewitness). See Witton’s book “Scapegoats of the Empire “ (1907; Angus & Robertson reprint 1982), page 84.

Regarding Downton Abbey, I recall watching the first episode and thinking "Ah, this is like Brideshead Revisited....but dumber." I only lasted a few more episodes after it became clear this was just "Dallas" with English accents. Pretty scenery though, have to give it that.

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Researching Lee Speeds and all commercial Lee Enfields. If you have data to share or questions, please send me a PM.

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