[quote=@HeySeuss] Actually, I find the SMLE to be well balanced, good trigger and an excellent bolt. The recoil is actually quite gentle for a full sized rifle firing a full sized cartridge, and I have a Swiss K-31, Russian 1891/30, and Springfield 1903 to compare that to; working on getting a Yugoslavian M48 as well. I own the No.1 Mk III SMLE and the Enfield No. 4 Mk. II. [/quote] Heh, well yeah I guess you're talking to someone who doesn't handle them. To a 16 year old kid, it was a matter of "Imagine lugging this around all day!" You ever fired that ww2 semi-auto German rifle? The K...43 was it? Do they even exist anymore? I always wondered how they compared to the Garand. History sources are ever so vague, and always obsess over manufacturing problems as opposed to in-detail combat use. [quote=@RoadRash] The majority of my long-guns are for hunting. Rifles of various sizes for different kinds of game (I prefer to do my hunting in Colorado during school breaks, and the .300 Win-Mag I use there for Elk would blow one of these little Oklahoma white tail deer in half.) The AR is for coyotes on the family farm, and because they're great fun. I got the AK because I had deployment money to spend, and that's really the only reason. I love it, but it's not really a gun that I own for a [i]reason[/i]. I do have a shotgun specifically for keeping hoodlums out of my apartment (I'm in a part of town where that's a real problem). I got my concealed-carry permit when I left the Corps for much the same reason. When I'm out riding with my club, I carry my .38 or my little .380 Auto. EDIT : [@TomeBinder] They're heavy partly because they're old, but also because that's part of the design. Remember, this was before high-capacity magazines, and close-quarters fighting was still a very common occurrence. You wanted a rifle that could stand up to regular bayonet use, and double as a club in a pinch. It's rare things go that direction in modern combat, but we still issue bayonets in the Marine Corps. I don't remember if the army does or not, but I had one in Afghanistan. [/quote] Yeah that makes sense, I guess I never saw it that way.