John;
Top of the morning to you my cyber friend, I hope all is well in your part of the world.
It's a wee bit cool here this morning for the Okanagan - so much so I lit a fire in the stove to take the chill off whilst perusing the 'Fire.
So with apologies to those who've read this from me before in previous years, we've had the following work very well with SMLE rifles.
Brass longevity is typically an issue with the SMLE as they were cut with generous chambers in most cases. That doesn't mean a lot of the barrels weren't capable of placing bullets close together however - but 2-3 reloads were all one could get from brass until we came up with a better plan.
The brass issue can be solved in many cases by simply starting with virgin brass, opening the neck up with a .338 or .358 tapered expander ball and then sizing it back down with the .303 die - but leaving a secondary shoulder further up the neck.
The object is to have the bolt just so close with some effort on the newly formed case.
Fired with normal loads and then resizing the cases as one would any rimless case results in brass that has been lasting for more than 5 reloads and counting.
The only downside is one needs to keep the brass for each .303 you've got separated, but seeing how rare reloading components are up here nowadays there's most likely enough incentive to do so.
A whole pile of SMLE rifles have been "sporterized" up here and in the process were drilled and tapped by a wide variety of "craftsmen". Sometimes they are so far off that one can't get a modern scope to adjust enough to hit point of aim - but that can be fixed if one is so inclined.
I've modified Parker Hale and Weaver bases - there was another one that mounted into the rear sight base on a No. 4Mk1 too where this worked in the following manner.
We mount the base with the screws in place but loose. Then mount the rings and scope with the scope's horizontal adjustment in the center - so if its 10 turns total adjustment we're 5 in, etc.
We'll pull the bolt and bore sight the unit on a target 35-40 yards away to see how far off the base holes have been drilled. They really, REALLY vary in quality and straightness John.....
So we'll center the base/scope/bore all up so the reticle is pointing where we need it to if we can and if we can't we'll pull the whole thing apart and with a small chainsaw file just elongate the holes on the base in the direction it needs to go.
Once we have the base modified enough so the reticle is centered, a line is scribed on both sides of the base.
At this point I'll coat the mounting screws with release agent, cross hatch or score the bottom face of the mount and degrease it and the rifle action with white gas.
Glue the base onto the action along the scribed lines with bedding epoxy and in 24 hours one can mount the rings/scope combo, go sight the the old warhorse in and then take it hunting.
I'll note before leaving that this modification has been working on a couple rifles for more than 20 seasons here in BC and counting - so I'm pretty confident the epoxy trick works.
Anyway John, hopefully that was useful for someone wanting to get an old SMLE out afield again.
All the best to you this weekend sir.
Dwayne
