Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Question for Uncle Steve and Uncle Dwayne

and any others who want to pitch in.

Firstly I hope for Steve and Dwayne and the rest of y'all that you and yours are well and healthy.

I have recently been given a LE No 4 with the Mk 4 rear sight in amateurish sporterized condition, I soon will be given what I recall as a No 3 SMLE in similar amateurish sportized condition. I have no particular need for these old and somewhat neglected rifles but I do not want to see them slowly allowed to rust and rot away, or worse yet be handed over to the authorities for destruction. I'm looking for some low cost ideas that can bring these rifles into regular usage. So a few questions:

1) Steve does your book the accurate enfield (my pardon if I butchered the title) cover sporterized rifles? Can I buy the book straight from you?

2) Wolverine sports in Manitoba recently had and very quickly sold out of a .45 ACP adapter and barrel set for the Enfield manufactured by a company called Rhineland, does anyone have experience with the product.

3) Any ideas for a reboring? Is 8mm enough of a jump up to do a rebore? .338? 9.3mm? Any perspectives and experience?

4) what is the best way to bed a sporterized enfield stock?

5) any thoughts on updating the sights on the No 3? My eyes really struggles with open sights but function well with peep sights. How difficult is it to mount optics on a N0 3?

6) looking more for labour intensive and less cash intensive projects but if one of the actions is in really good nick I would not reject the idea of re-barrelling the rifle. Any thoughts on the various 6mm, 6.5, .270, 7mm wildcats based upon the .303 British case? Steve do any of your books cover wildcats of th .303 case?

Things are in the early early stages, I don't even know exactly what I have, just looking for ideas.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, input and questions.

I hope y'all are having a wonderful day.

Thanks

GRF

GRF;
Good evening to you sir, I hope the week was a good one for you and this finds you and yours well.

Since you've nicely numbered the questions, I'll leave #1 to Steve and say that # 2 sounds intriguing but I have no experience with it at all

For reboring, I'd talk to the person doing the job and go from there for sure. Smiths are sorta like mechanics in that if one pushes them where they're not comfortable, then the chances of success are diminished for sure.

I'd think that a .35-303 or a 9.3-.303 would be grand cartridges to play with and if you're not into cast bullets yet would be a gateway into that world as well.

Bedding them for me goes like this more or less, but if Steve has a different way I'd defer to him as he's worked over more than me I'd want to say. Anyways I make sure the butt stock is tight - as in I'll epoxy it with bedding compound for a perfect fit tight. Then for the fore end, I'll float the entire barrel other than the front retainer band and I'm looking for just a bit of pressure there - say 5lbs or as much as you could push away with a finger - gripping the fore stock with another finger and thumb one should be able to push it away.

Now that's the way on a regular stock without a barrel retaining band, but more or less that's the pressure on the barrel I'm going to start looking for.

Optics on an SMLE used to be a Weaver but it might be tougher to find now, I'm not sure. The one thing about the Weaver was that one needed to use a .22 rimfire set of rings as it was 3/8" dovetail, but that said I've never had one move once it was installed.

That said, the Parker Hale side mount was the best I've seen and honestly this mount from Steve's sight looks to be very serviceable.

http://www.303british.com/id32.html

Actually that chunk of angle iron along with a flat bottom blank of Weaver base - or any flat bottom Picatinny type rail - would work just fine.... I now need to find an SMLE to experiment with!!!

If you're stuck for somebody local there on your side of the big hills to install a mount for yours, there's always Canada Post and you can send it here and I can come up with something that'd work I'm sure.

Anyways, the offer is there - I work cheap, but I don't work in hunting season which lasts a quarter of the year here!

Hopefully that was at least somewhat useful for you sir. All the best to you folks this summer.

Dwayne

Dwayne; thank you sir for your interesting and informative post!

Hi. I think that I can help. The second rifle would be a No 1 Mk III. The No 4 Rifle had their rear sight mounted on the action. They were aperture (peep) sights, and vastly superior to the U or V notch sights on the No 1 and other military rifles of the period.



No, The Accurate Lee Enfield was written with keeping the 'as issued' No 4 rifle in good shape. That said, the mechanisms are almost the same for both models - The No 1 and No 4 rifles. The stock improvements are only those that were authorized by the CDN military for No 4s in military competitions. There is a section on triggers, adjusting/changing/sighting in iron sights and other things. Here is a link to the T of C. http://www.303british.com/id6.html

The book is available from me directly.



I do not.



Usually, Lee Enfields weren't rebored. They were rebarrelled for bullets larger than .313. At any rate, it would be cheaper to rebarrel than rebore. The best person to talk to about this is John Rempel John Rempel <jrs-gunspris.bc.ca> He is in BC.



It is similar to a standard one piece stock. You have to bed around the action at the screw hole and back about 1/2 an inch towards the magazine opening. As well, the area forward at the Knox Form, has to be fully and evenly supported. For a full wood stock, there has been some debate about the pressure point toward the muzzle. Some rifles worked better without it. Regardless, your rifle does not have this, so by bedding the area 1/2 an inch behind the screw forward to the barrel/action join will keep pressure off of everything.



Absolutely. Dwayne posted the link to an angle iron mount on my site. I will re-post it. http://www.303british.com/id32.html



The Accurate Lee Enfield briefly touches on 20 odd cartridges based on the 303 British. Almost all involve rebarreling. Should you decide to rebarrel, remember that you would have to find the forming/reloading dies for them as well. You will also have feeding difficulties with many of them. The follower was designed to work with the 303 British.

If I was considering cleaning up an older No 1 or No 4, the 30-303 is the way to go. Briefly, it is a 303 British, but with a 308 barrel. Bullets are easy to find. Feeding from the mag is slick.

When you rebarrel, you are getting a new, and properly cut chamber. You can use 303 British dies with a single, inexpensive modification that you can do in seconds to your die. Barrels are available in Canada. Should you go this route, chat with John Rempel. For research, I released a book on the 30-303 that outlines what has to be done to convert your Lee Enfield rifle to a 30-303. The link is here. http://www.303british.com/id95.html





No problem.

Steve; thank you! For an informative response.

You're welcome. All the best.