The Birmingham Small Arms Lee-Speed, a sporting version of the military Lee-Metford rifle that became popular at the turn of the 20th Century.
The rifle is the iconic tool and weapon of the Frontier Partisan. Through many eras, that tool evolved to be both highly functional and aesthetically pleasing. One can readily appreciate the long, elegant lines of the classic American long rifle that breached the Appalachian divide in the hands of Long Hunters, or the heavy-duty gravitas of the Hawken Rifle or the Sharps that served plainsmen and prospectors for decades. The Springfield Rifle wielded by the likes of Geronimo deserves a nod, The lever action rifle was and remains a Frontier Partisans stalwart, and the Mighty Mauser of the Boer fighter or the Mexican revolutionary must always get its proper due.
For me, the apogee of Frontier Partisan rifles was reached in the classic bolt action sporters produced in England at the end of the 19th Century. They just speak to me — of adventure, class and pluck. If I had to pick one rifle that I would love to own over all others, it would be Rigby’s Highland Stalker WDM Bell rifle. It pays tribute to one of my favorite Frontier Partisans, and it’s just, well…
There’s another rifle in this class that deserves note: the Lee-Speed sporting rifle. You may remember it wielded by Val Kilmer’s John Henry Patterson against man-eating lions in The Ghost in the Darkness.
The Birmingham Small Arms Lee-Speed is the sporting version of the military Lee-Metford rifle, chambered in .303. It was popular among British officers who could buy their own weapons. One such ended up in the hands of a legendary Boer fighter when Jan Smuts’ commando struck the encampment of the 17th Lancers at Modderfontein Farm, Eastern Cape Colony, South Africa, on September 17, 1901.
The commando was at the end of its tether when it hit the British camp and overwhelmed the Lancers in a sharp, close quarters firefight. They were ragged and were close to completely out of ammunition for their Mauser rifles. So they replaced them with captured British Lee-Metfords. Among the most raggedy of the Boer fighters was the stalwart and deadly young Denys Reitz. After the battle, he claimed his spoils, including an excellent new rifle. From Warriors of the Wildlands:
With the gallantry characteristic of his class, a wounded British officer, Lord Vivian, pointed the derelict young Boer fighter to his tent, telling him he would find much there that would benefit him.
Reitz was, at long last, fully kitted out, riding away with “a handsome cavalry tunic, riding-breeches, etc., with a sporting Lee-Metford, full bandoliers and a superb mount, a little grey Arab, which his coloured groom said had been the property of Lieutenant Sheridan.”
Reitz called the rifle a Lee-Metford, but it was almost certainly a Lee-Speed — just the kind of rifle an aristocratic officer would be packing in 1901.
Below is an excellent briefing on the qualities of the rifles.
The great American scout Frederick Russell Burnham carried in Africa what is described as a Lee-Metford Rifle that, once again appears to be actually a Lee-Speed half-stock sporter — down to the medallion in the stock and the eye for a sling on the barrel.
Burnham, left, with his half-stocked Lee-Speed, during the Rhodesia years.
This was the rifle with which he shot the M’limo during the 1896 Second Matabele War. You can listen to the Frontier Partisan Podcast on that controversial episode here.
A classic among the firearms of the Frontier Partisan, the Lee-Speed just trips my trigger.
Joe says
I didn’t realize Frederick Russell Burnham toted a Lee-Metford. I’m from the New Ulm/Mankato area in Minnesota, and the story of his survival in a corn field as a baby is one of many my Grandpa would tell us. (The next year, Chief Little Crow was killed on my Grandpa’s land near Hutchingson, but that’s a tale for another time!).
The Lee-Speed surely met some high-reliability standards to be favored in such a variety of rugged environments. Another vintage class for my future wishlist hah. Great write up!
Brian H. says
Interesting. I never knew that Remington made Lee action rifles. Long time ago I had a mil spec full stock .303. The action was slick for sure but I guess not quite the same as a Speed. The other rifle that strikes me as iconic from the same era is the Krag-Jorgensen.
Phil Shoemaker says
I have a Remington Lee 1899 sporting rifle I still hunt with here in Alaska.
It is one of the rifles I featured in the 2023 Gun Digest “ Bolt Action Sporting Rifles of the 20th Century”
Quixotic Mainer says
I have a deep fondness for Jeff Cooper’s “Scout Rifle” concept. Trying to emulate the characteristics of handling and capability of the weapons from that era, with a few little modern updates.
Most of the scout’s critics usually voice that it’s something vaunted by deluded nostalgic guys gearing up for a frontier situation that doesn’t exist anymore. I can’t think of a better accolade!
JimC says
As a life-member of the Honorable Society of Deluded Nostalgic Guys Gearing Up For A Frontier Situation, I heartily endorse your position.
J.F. Bell says
The trouble with having any shade of early Lee sporter is that it inevitably drives you to collect its counterparts – the Oberndorf commercial Mauser, the the double rifle, the trapdoor whether Springfield or Snyder. This naturally requires that you pick up a Mauser Broomhandle and probably one of the Boer-era topbreak Webleys, and while you’re in the neighborhood it would be foolish to leave without one of the Colt automatics that cut its teeth in France in 1917.
And you have to come home eventually, and at home the natives are waiting – the Savage 99s and Winchester lever guns and Remington’s early autoloaders in chamberings not much available in the latter half of the 20th century.
Any and all of which have the kind of stories and heart and soul that finds no foothold in our modern land of black plastic and picatinny rails.
Which is the long way of saying that if the zombies ever show up wearing other than feathers and lionskins, I’m probably hosed.
JimC says
Yeah, but you go out in style, right?
J.F Bell says
There are worse fates, I think.
We all gotta die of something. Least we can do is make it awesome.
Mike says
Is cognitive dissonance the right psychological term for my brain automatically replacing “The trouble with…” at the start of your comment with “The great thing about…”? 🙂
J.F. Bell says
Heh. Fair point.
Geoff Miller says
Have you read Jim Corbett’s books “Maneaters of Kumaon” and others? As I recall (because I’m too lazy to walk to the bookshelf), one of his favourite rifles was a .275 Rigby — in other words, a Rigby hunting rifle on a Mauser action in 7mm Mauser. Probably looked very similar to your illustration.
JimC says
Yes. Corbett is one of my all-time heroes. You are spot-on regarding the
Rigby.
Some posts:
https://frontierpartisans.com/24624/a-rifles-journey/
https://frontierpartisans.com/13766/legendary-hunters-legendary-rifles/
https://frontierpartisans.com/14373/rigby-heroes/
SQUIRE RUSTICUS says
Firearms and history are my weaknesses.
I’d love to have one of the Rigby Highland rifles, but fear it will never happen.
I really enjoy the old Safari, Adventure, Warfare, Exploration, Colonist books.
My great great grandparents the Elins (French) had a coffee plantation in Sumatra (we have photos on cardboard of the family in tropical suits, my great great grandfather wearing like a sombrero with a tiger he killed, etc…) before they moved on to Australia many years later. My French family (other branches) also lived in Africa, Asia, during Victorian years.
Old style guns are fantastic guns. A Sharp’s buffalo gun will still do its duty, a Mossin-Nagant or old Enfield can still take man or beast. A French MAS 49/56 (although the magazines hold 10 rounds) could still get one out of a bad situation. The only problem with a cap and ball Colt (Uberti) or Cattleman (Peacemaker) is they are slower to load.
My feelings for something that has had a history, a firearm that is stocked in wood, is they are much more important to me, then the tactical plastic tricked out modern firearms (although I have those for other reasons).
Scout Rifles-
I believe most people that do not accept the Scout rifles role, fail to understand the concept. Which has been hashed and rehashed so many times, that I’m often perplexed that younger tactical types pull it apart as completely unusable in any situation on Earth.
I have the Ruger Gunsite and the earlier Savage. The Ruger is always with me if I travel, as it is about as handy as one could hope to have. I have 5, 10, and 20 round magazines. I do wish it had a wooden stock like the Enfield Jungle rifles and the Gibbs reworked rifles. (Intended to purchase one, never did.) For a truck gun Scout Rifles are about a great a rifle as one could hope to have, unless your in an area that you might get into it with bandits, cartel members, meth heads.
I can protect myself, I can make meat, I can engage from a distance. It does not make people, law enforcement as nervous in some areas of the country, as say an AR, M1A, etc… if they see me load it in the SUV or I get pulled over.
I’d like to have one of the Selous High Walls Uberti is making now. I’d bought the Uberti High Wall in 45-70 a couple years ago, and wish I’d waited or even knew they would be coming out with the Selous model.
Like most of you gentlemen, I dream I could have a battery of old Africa rifles , but……
Quixotic Mainer says
Well said. The scout is misunderstood as a tool because the mentality and skillset that goes along with it isn’t comprehended or appreciated.