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Out of interest I've just checked a copy of the CSR Imperial entry form for 2005 and it shows that back then SMLE and the No 4 were two separate entry classes. The other classes were any iron and any optic. By 2007 the entry form listed the classes as, historic, any iron, service optic and practical optic.

Just seen the pics on the NRA page from today's historic match, what a mix of rifles, loved the Nagant (bayonet out) and did I see a MAS-36.
Sfwh how did you get on ?

Yes actually it was one of my friends using the MAS-36. I think he enjoyed it although it gave him some feeding issues. It went well for me I think, I came second in the foreign service rifle division. The guy who won it got an astonishing score with a Springfield 1903a3.

Oh bugger.....I forgot all about this, I was going to pop down and have a look, for some reason my mind was telling me it was next Saturday

I've seen people using K31s in CSR and they weren't scoring badly by any means, it's not hard to reload from a stripper clip either. 15 rounds in a minute is (just about) manageable with practice. And if you can get GP11 it's certainly accurate enough, but my eyesight isn't good enough on small targets with iron sights.

It was a great match and the weather wasn't as bad as predicted (unlike Sunday).

There was some good shooting, and the winner of the All Comers virtually lives on the range so no shame in coming second to him.
I was quite pleased to be moderately placed with the old SMLE, old sights and old eyes don't mix but the new glasses help somewhat.
It was good to see a fairly large contingent of foreigners, even out numbered the Optic class (but I know of at least one that would have shot a 4T if there wasn't an All Comers class), makes it more worthwhile allowing them.

I think it helps this subject if some of the background to historic CSR is known.

When the first Historic only CSR competition was put together it was an idea which originally came from the CSR fraternity.
A lot of CSR shooters also own Lee Enfield's and wanted to shoot them in a separate competition away from the CSR league, the idea being to keep their scores consistent whilst shooting AR's and the like.
Hence the idea for the separate historic competition.

At the time there were rumblings from the historic shooting quarter from those who wanted to shoot their Mosins Nagant's, Ariska's etc and the historic rep along with the NRA shooting division decided to add a foreign all comers class. The nett result was that all of the whingers who demanded to shoot anything and every thing as long as it wasn't an Enfield didn't have the balls to enter the competition when the opportunity arose. Oddly enough I remember the CSR rep prophesying this a few weeks before the match!

The first CSR match as we know it today was way back in 1998~99 alongside the army, I used my No.4 but the year after I switched to my smellie and in the Methuen used a Long Lee, purely because the LERA team was deemed to be a display team of sorts, this changed when the HBSA put a team together so LERA had some competition.
They were fun shoots back then but what was lacking was a clear set of rules which were then devised by those shooting CSR along with some help from the NRA.
A friend described the thrashing out of the CSR rules as death by email!

The one over riding memory of that period was that the NRA Council said they would only allow Lee Enfield's to compete because of two reasons; one was the CoF and the other was that the Lee Enfield was a known quantity and anything else could turn into a nightmare.
The reasoning behind this was because a competitor might have a faint, or fall into a ditch on the rundown. The rundown in those days was from 500 yards to 100 and you might not have an RO who would be familiar with some of the foreign rifles which back then the rundown was done with a chambered round. Picking a rifle up with a chambered round and not knowing how the safety works could be a problem.

It must also be remembered that it was the army's match back then and we were only allowed to compete alongside with their permission.
It was after a huge amount of negotiation from the late Pete Bloom and his efforts in getting the NRA Council to come on board that CSR started in the way we know it today.