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Ishapore 2A1 SMLE: WW II Fave Bolt Gun (Patreon)

Published:
2020-09-26 02:11:39
Edited:
2020-09-26 02:22:06
Imported:
2026-08
Tags:

Content

A fun in Bunker review with TacticalDoodle talking about a very cool WW II style gun you probably never heard of.  It is a modern version of a Lee Enfield SMLE .303 bolt gun but made in India and chambered for the .308!  Lots of "enfield" shooting video is shown and we even take a break from the review to let you hear our comments. We'll talk about other fave bolt guns of the era too!

Pachmayer Decelerator Pad for buttstocks: https://shrsl.com/2ivyc

Files

Ishapore 2A1 SMLE: WW II Fave Bolt Gun

Comments

Dan C

Enfield!

Scout154

WWII is my favorite era of small arms. So many advancements in a short period time. The men and women who served paved the way for us. If they only could see what's going on they would be so disappointed in America right now. I'm glad my grandfather did not see this country like this.

Red dog 1

Score because it’s in 308. Rare calibers make it expensive to shoot and sometimes the ammo is hard to find

Tacticaldoodle

There's a book that came out a while ago, focusing on the vets of WWII in britain. One of the questions to ex-servicemen was 'Are you happy with how your country has turned out? What do you think your fallen comrades would have made of life in 21st-century Britain?' The answers were bleak. -Cot'd

Austin Cobb

Totally agree on ammo choice. I’m trying hard to stay with 308, 7.62x39, 5.56, 9mm, and 22lr. Nutn or Doodle, what are your cannot-live-without calibers?

Scout154

I'm sure they were. My grandfather was in the Big Red 1 for entire European Campaign. He's the reason I joined the army

Tacticaldoodle

"This land of hope and glory is in reality a land of yobs, drug addicts, drunkard youths and teenage mothers', It's as if we had served our country to the full and were then forgotten', 'I sing no song for the once-proud country that spawned me, and I wonder why I ever tried.' "My patriotism has gone out the window", "If I had my time again, would we fight as before? Need you ask?", "Our country has been given away to foreigners.....", "Those comrades of mine who never made it back would be appalled if they could see the world as it is today."

Tacticaldoodle

"As I look around parts of Birmingham today you would never know you were in England", "I am very unhappy about the way this country is being transformed. I go nowhere after dark. I don't even answer my doorbell then.", "This is not the country I fought for.", and "Our culture is draining away and we are forbidden to say anything." ----- from "The Unknown Warriors" by Nicholas Pringle

Scout154

I feel the same way. It's a true shame what happened to this world in just a few short decades. People don't even know if they are men or women nowadays

Dan C

Thank you for keeping us inspired during these dark times.

Scout154

I will have to pick that book up. Thanks for the insight

Tacticaldoodle

Sorry dudes, I polluted the comments section. I'm glad this dropped, though you'll be hard pressed to find these as cheap as they once were. You may find some from someone who bought theirs for a couple hundred to four hundo, but look out for damage in the grip joint. I heard from one guy that his was cracked pretty bad and he had a time finding a replacement stock for cheap. Still, it's my favorite enfield. At $650 it's a little less fun, but I'd still be down for one if I could get it down from there a bit.

ToddDavey

FYI "The Unknown Warriors" quoted by Doodle above is $2.99 for Kindle

Scout154

I will def check it out

NatvMan

It’s ok, I really like the info you share on these old guns. I think my next gun will be a CMP M1 Garand. And I would like a 1911 to go with it. It would be my WWII run and gun load out. I also have a dream to get a .357 lever gun and a revolver for and old western load out.

David and Elizabeth

So cool! Looks like tons of fun to shoot. And we love that parkerized finish. 👍 👨‍👩‍👧❤

Tacticaldoodle

.22lr, 9mm (carry, fun, and defensive) and probably 5.56 for all around. I would try to keep it somewhat limited unless you've got enough family to make sense of outfitting everything. It's hard enough to stack it deep, I have no idea how some guys load up on everything under the sun. But 5.56 is so useful, common, and AR's so cheap it's pretty much assumed the basic armory includes at least 1 AR per family member. I love the russian stuff, but I don't know where the future leads with the surplus stuff blackballed. I love me some AK's, but NF is the one feeding them.

Tacticaldoodle

If anyone ever asks "should I get a CMP gar-" the answer is YES. Already have one? Get another. What's that? You have six? Maybe another just to be safe. It's the closest thing on the market to the question "What do you kick yourself for missing out on?" We see adds with Swedish K's for fifty bucks and wonder why no one jumped on it, while CMP had all-new, International harvester, korean M1's for around $1k. It's just such a deal and it's not gonna last much longer. The 1911's are a bit much for me..... I really like them, but it don't matter much anyway unless they open up the applications for the lottery again. If you're interested, Tiger (IIRC) just imported a ton of Ethiopian M1 carbines, but they're expensive and pretty rough.

Lon N

Thanks for sharing Nutn and TD. The video brought back a flood of memories - my first Enfield exposure was via the older male cousin boys dream about...the kind that will buy you pounds of black powder to play with when you are 11 or 12. He bought an 303 Lee Enfield when I was 10 or 11 (50ish years ago) and let me shoot it. Even being a big kid I remember the kick and struggling to empty all 10 shots. Thanks for the memory =)

Tacticaldoodle

At least for now, there are some mk IV's around on the market for about $450, if you're willing to run .303. It's such a funky caliber, which is why we run this one in .308. We ain't super anglophiles, and our weird caliber appetite is already whetted with Jap/Ger/.455. The enfields are great rifles though, esp when you collect the full gamut of evolution.

Michael Szymborski

TD never had the makings of a varsity athlete... 🤣 One of my favorite Soprano quotes!

Lon N

If I remember right the Mitchell Mauser you flashed is also 308? I would love a Spanish FR-8 if we want to talk obscure 308 tastiness.

The Nutnfancy Project

Yep, I scored this for an amazing deal, bought at Gallensons downtown SLC in 2017. This was the tail end we feel of these deals and super clean surplus rifles. Too much publicity, and yes we're part of the problem, killed it. But if you watch GunBroker and are patient deals still pop up.

Tacticaldoodle

Yeah I would dig one of those, it's just fun talking about anything from La Coruna. The mitchell's was just a modern production mauser carbine that zastava makes. IIRC they still make it for sale as a police carbine or something. It wouldn't surprise me if it's the same tooling from last century they've been keeping around. Cool, but not necessarily gonna increase in value like true gov milsurp tends to.

Lon N

To paraphrase you guys: Things from an age when Picatinny was an obscure government arsenal.

ThisWe'llDefend

This vid brought back some memories for me. I bought a 2A in the mid 90's for about $125 if memory serves. I shot it for a while in the original configuration before mounting it in a sporterized polymer stock. I then totally lost interest in it. Big surprise, right? It's been in the back of the safe since then. Thank God I saved all the original wood and hardware. This video has given me some motivation to restore it. That is if we don't end up in a Marxist revolution first.

Nathan P Hubsch

You'd love a Hakim, I'd send you mine. Can still get 8mm mauser online, no problem.

Chopper

I’ve got a Lee Enfield No. 4 MK1 and love it. You really do have to man handle the bolt but it is a joy to shoot. The Garand is still my favorite WW2 rifle.

RowdyRon

Excellent find. Like mentioned previously, I'm trying to limit my variety of cartridges, and I don't currently own anything in .308. I'd like to find a semi-auto FN SLP, or a Remington V3 Tactical, but those are pretty much unobtainium. Old wood and steel is pretty sweet. Thanks TD and Nutn.

Kinoons

I had a 2A1 that I sold because I just didn’t use it. That was a mistake. Now the only Enfield I have is a No4(T) that gets to the range once a year or so for a 20 round shakedown.

Connor Murphy

Love the WWII guns. keep up the great work, Y'all.

jeff sikora

I have two of these, a 2A SMLE I got for $69 when they first came out, and one that was converted to a jungle carbine for around $200. This was around 1998, I think. A few years ago I was looking at the value online and was shocked at how high the price has risen. I wouldn't sell either of them, they are easy to shoot out to long range and definitely have the second cool going for them.

DTP

I like when you include Doodle in videos. At first the change felt odd, but now I find it hilarious.

Miguel Rodriguez

You know this rifle is great when Nutnfancy farts on camera shooting it at the 6:25 mark.

Jack Davis

Does anybody know where to purchase stripper clips for the Ishapore 2A1? The only ones I have found are not very good.

Porter3861

Awesome video and review! I'm a Mauser enthusiast and have several that I've mod'd similar to the mods you guys did on the Mosins. Love shooting them, handloading for them, and really dialing in the accuracy. Thanks for the outstanding content and please keep it up!!

Tacticaldoodle

I think a lot of the buyers grabbed them on the advice of that survival writer, he pushed them as a better cheap battle rifle alternative than the mosin so many guys were grabbing. Function wise, they pale in comparison to a good AR 10, but they're older tech with surplus character. I still eyeball the No4's they have now, I worry I'll regret not buyin' them.

Tacticaldoodle

It's gotta be stuff that's interesting, sometimes there are things that I literally have zero opinion on, and I just awkwardly look into the barrel of the cam.

Tacticaldoodle

Standard M14 clips supposedly work fine, I only had the surplus ones from the 90's but they seemed to work just fine. About $1 each. I think they work for Fals too, if you have one with a guide. It's pretty fun running a bolt gun Snoxley style.

Christopher B.

Originally chambered in .308! That's a definite selling point. No room in my storage to expand to another caliber. The 10 round mag makes it perfect for CA too. Am I the only one to notice that unholy fart at 28:36? Another post production fart addition, picked up loud and clear on my headphones haha wtf. Where did you pick this one up from?

Andrettski

I think most of us can agree that there is just something pure and beautiful when a rifle has all that wood and steel which feels so good in the hands. Cookie cutter guns don't have the character that these mid-century military rifles possess . Thanks wolf howlers for the great GRW.

Tacticaldoodle

I love a good mauser build. They're so nice, and I've got a particular love for a ZF41 clone, as terrible as the optic is. We've at least got enough 8mm mauser to last a generation or two at the rates we shoot it. I did notice some of my yugo brass is deformed on the mouth last time I took mine out though, I hadn't noticed before but the neck is all wavy. Now I'm keeping a lookout in case I start reloading it someday.

Zach

At that point he said “and I’m done” lol

Chris Kales

What a find! This rifle seems pretty awesome. I have one of those unissued contract Enfields that made an appearance about 10 years ago, and don't shoot it much because of the .303 caliber. The 7.62x51 chambering on this makes it pretty stellar. Nutn & TD, What ammunition were you shooting through this? Does it have to be lower pressure stuff?

Pedro

Surplus guns in 308 or 3006 make me happy.

The Nutnfancy Project

Sounds like you have a great Enfield. We shot regular 7.62x51mm through the Ishapore without problems. FM 150 gr mostly, some 150 gr Fed SP. The Garands need lower power .30-06 because their op rods can bend.

Beck

That thing sounds really cool

Chris Kales

Good to know it can deal with today's loads. Added the Ishapore to the ol' gun wish list; Mr. Credit Card won't be happy. Lol!

TheFireman653

When I first started collecting guns I scored one of these in the local gun shop. I came down with an addiction to mil-surp and thought this was one of the coolest pieces in my collection. But I was a young 18 year old and thought another "tacticool" AR would be pretty awesome, you can see where this is headed, right? Well I ended up selling it and man do I regret it, especially after watching this video. I just wanna say thank you for all the hard work you put in Nutn! Its awesome to have useful and NON-BIAS info during these crazy times. Keep up the good work from a loyal Okie TNP'er!

Madison Bee

I love it when nutnfancy does reviews on WW2 collectibles. So much history in these old guns. I own a few Mitchell's mausers because of him.

Andrettski

I'm always late to the party, never heard of this rifle until yesterday. I was patriotically late to most.(meaning "I'm not interested in those foreign guns") It's called red white and blue flu The mosin, the mak 90 along with other AK's However, I do have a German 7mm mauser

Daniel Gray Webb

I got mine in 303. Enfield was my first rifle a few years ago and I stocked up on some old surplus 303. These days the 2a1 in 7.62 are going for over $500.

Daniel Gray Webb

I'll stick with my p17 as the best ww1 and ww2 bolt action rifle.

Ruffner Lowman

What is the tat on the left wrist? Never noticed that before! I've been watching since year two.

Jason Burson

Nutnfancy “look at this cool thing we have all overlooked forever that no one really wants” Market reacts and item price increases and becomes rare.

bcbrin

I've had my C&R for a while and held off on several milsurps specifically because I didn't want to invest in some oddball caliber. This seems to solve that problem, has some 1st cool, and a whole lot of 2nd.

Joseph Peña

I have 2A1 and a "jungle carbine" 2A1, if you like the 2A1 you would love the "jungle carbine". Very handy, quick in hand, and easy to shoot.

John Krywy

I picked mine up a few years back... same reason; like the design, not a fan of .303. Only difference is mine has an original 12 round magazine. I’ve actually been looking for a .410 Musket (modified .303 case), which I got three gunsmith specials from Century. Took the one with the best barreled action, and in the process of cleaning it up. Planning on having a gunsmith ream it out for 3” .410 shotshell. That way, have two Enfields with different chamberings. Once I get it done, probably will post the other two on Gunboards for someone else to play with. Was going to do two, and keep one in the original chambering... but same reason as not going .303; don’t want to stock that round.

Matthew Larson

Very cool! I own an SMLE from the Lithgow factory in Australia. I need to spend some more time with it to really figure out how it shoots. So far I haven't had much luck with accuracy at 100 yards. If nothing else, it's a really cool piece of history! I'd like to own a No. 4 and a No. 5 "jungle carbine" at some point, too.

The Nutnfancy Project

Sounds like a wonderful collectible Matthew, is .303 avail down there in Australia and do you have a place to shoot it?

A

+The Nutnfancy Project Can you see if Gunnies has a new Colt Python? That would be a cool review.

Ricky Kurtz

Hey LTC, Don’t do it !!!!!, this time I have to disagree with Tacdoodle. I have been collecting genuine military firearms for many years. Even making a change that is temporary and reversible can leave a trace that a change was made and will effect the value and historical significance of said firearm. I have several variants of SMLE rifles, they are terrific shooters. The ballistics are very similar to our .30’06(7.62x63). Terrific presentation !!!! Thank you, and Tacadoodle too !!! Ricky from IBM, Ret

Matthew Larson

Sorry Nutn, I meant the factory is in Australia! I actually live in Wisconsin. But .303 is still hard to find here. My LGS only had a few boxes of one brand, and I think that's all I've seen anywhere locally.

Daniel Herb

I wish I had more room for some WW2 rifles. I love the history and nostalgia of the time, and what those weapons represent for America. Men and Women standing for Freedom!

Mike Hill

I have to mention I bought mine for $110 with OG sling and bayonet and 3 mags. I had to sell it to make a house payment but we do what we have to (deep, sad sigh). I still have the after market Pic rail block that afixes on top if anyone is interested...

Nancy Merrell-Robertson

Even though I could never lift one, I find the information fascinating. Thanks as always, Nutn and TD.

Porter3861

Thanks for the reply! Is the case mouth deformed after you're firing it? I've seen this happen with the thinner brass reloads (like Remington) but the PPU brass I reload has never experienced that. Hmmmm. Also, just want you guys to know I've made several purchases based on the thorough reviews (and I've avoided others).

Anthony Schaad

Awesome vid, me n my bro are kinda history buffs and into older firearms, and that one fits the bill. Not one I’ve seen in the local gun shops and shows but would b a great find. We just acquired a 1903 Springfield and it’s fantastic... enjoying it immensely! Great content Nutn !!!(

cody leeper

such a nice gun! I had a 2a1 7.62 exactly like that, literally exactly. condition, parkerized, everything... It was stolen from me in Idaho aboutttt 2013. along with my .303 enfield also in perfect condition, my yugo 8mm mauser, and my two mosins.m38 and m44. all were in showroom condition 😭😭😭 the sob story is they were in a storage unit and I was homeless at the time....and of course i had no records of the serial number. now they cant be replaced for a decent price like the old days. makes me happy to see one in such good shape being shot and loved on like it should!!

Lauren Patt-Kirby

Hi guys Sarco has complete rear sights for 24 bucks ..Keep the mil surplus coming we shoot swiss straight pulls in vintage rifle shoots wish we had something in 308 instead of 7.5 swiss .