old gun and smells

Question
I'm a writer.
Q 1: An old Kiwi soldier has kept his Enfield No 2 Mk1* (issued to NZ troops during World War II) in a wardrobe. (The gun is visible, not in a box or anything.) He takes it out and shoots a guy with it (plenty of time to get it out and load it), and is tackled by another guy as he shoots again. The second guy is trying to take the gun when he shoots the third time and it goes past the second guy's ear. Would the second guy smell cordite? Or anything else.

Q2: How well would the gun have to be cared for in order to be still working? Or would it be okay just sitting there? Would he have had to obtain fresh ammunition for it since it's been there about 60 years - if so, roughly how old could the ammo be to work?

Any other relevant detail welcome.

Thank you so much for giving your time.

Daphne  

Answer
The second guy would be so deaf from the round going by his ear he wouldn't be smelling anything....muzzle blast would have burned him. As far as ammo, WWII ammo was corrosive, especially British ammo, as the "salts" in the primer was mercuric acid. Eats the bore up if you don't clean it BUT the stuff never goes bad. I regularly shoot 1938 .30/06 ammo made at Franfkford arsenal and it works fine. Thanks for your question.