Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing SMLE 303 Brit

What can be made from one of these actions??
A friend aquired one and was thinking about a 6.5 Epps. After looking at the numbers he decided against it (same a a 6.5 Sweede- which he has several of).
Any info on a 9.3 Brit or 375 Brit??

I�m sure these old rifles have been rechambered in several different calibers over the years but the advisability and cost of doing so is pretty questionable to me.

Allot of #4�s were converted to fire the 7.62mm Nato round and you can find some of them for sale and every once in awhile the conversion kits can also be found.

The .303 round is a pretty damned good one. It has been used all over the world for many years to kill every game animal on the planet and has also been used in target shooting competition.

The Brits used them for their service sniper rifle clear into the 1980�s.

I would just rebarrel to a wildcat based on the .303, so you don't have to change the bolt face.

.25/303 .257
.275/303 7mm

Just make it a 303 Brit. (no joke)

BMT

That would depend a great deal on which model rifle you are talking about. The number 4 is the only SMLE that is considered safe for hotter than factory .303 loads.

45-70?

BMT

Most of the custom sites and millitary firearm sites say that they think the SMLE armorers used 600 pound gorillas to attach their barrels.

Getting the old barrel off and a new one on would be the more costly part, especially if your selected smith has to make a special jig to get the barrel off.

The 303 brit is plenty fun and accurate enough on it's own. Just clean it up, work up some loads and see how well you can shoot the rifle, not how much $$$ you can spend to make the rifle shoot for you.

I�ve seen that, and also .444 Marlin.

Boy, you got that right. I�ve pulled barrels on three SMLE�s and they are certainly put on there tight.

I also totally agree with your comment about leaving it alone as far as the caliber goes. The .303 is a hell of a round and it�s been my experience that whenever you try to change rounds in a military rifle that was designed from the ground up for a specific cartridge (especially one with a detachable magazine) you will run into tons of feeding and cycling problems. Unless you�re doing all the work yourself it�s real easy to have a very expensive rifle when you�re done.

A .25, 6.5mm, .270, or 7mm cartridge created by necking down a .303 (and giving it a slightly sharper shoulder in the process) need not run at higher pressures than the .303 Enfield in order to match the normal factory loads for the .257 Roberts, 6.5x55 Swede, etc.

P.O. Ackley loads for the .25-303:
100-gr SPT 2,750 fps
117-gr SBT 2,800 fps

I have been shooting the .303 since I traded a .455 Webley for a Jungle Carbine when I was 12 years old. I would just load up some 125-gr bullets and play with those, if the 174-gr and 180-gr pills aren't fast enough for you. Personally, I take my WW1 SMLE, WWII SMLE, or No.4 hunting every year.

If you rebarrel a wildcat, you have to cut the same contour, then play with shimming the barrel to tune it, etc....

The one cartridge (apart from the 303)which I KNOW works well in Lee Enfields is the 30/40 Krag. I've been shooting one for 25years. The only advantages are the availability of barrels and bullets. GD

Another GREAT and very underestimated cartridge. Up until not that long ago the record Rocky Mountain Elk was taken with the 30/40.

A friend had a .35-.303 rebore (35 Epps improved) done back in the 1950's.

It was a Jungle Carbine, and I can tell you with the larger bore and same diameter external barrel that sucker was LIGHT and kicked like a sumbitch. He slew a lot of whitetails with it, and more than a few moose and black bears. He loaded pistol bullets in it and shot it very cheaply for thousands of rounds at the range too.

My friend died years ago -- wish I'd been able to take care of his rifles before it was too late -- they might even have been turned in to the cops and destroyed by his non-shooting family.

I would have paid a fair price for this particular rifle. I often thought that it would have been a comforting light rifle to have when I was working in the Canadian Arctic and always looking over my shoulder for polar bears.

If you do a search, the gunshop in Orillia, Ontario, Canada that made the original Epps improved line of cartriges is on the 'net. It is under new ownership, but they still have all of Ellwood Epps old reamers (or at least they did a couple of years ago).

John

IMHO, the biggest problem with these old Enfield rifles is that folks tend to get confused about them. One must remember that the older Enfields, the MK-1 and Mk-4 series are NOT the same rifles as the later P-14's.

It's not hard to be confused about them, because for as long as I'm been messing with guns, I never knew the difference until a couple of years ago.

The P-14 is a very strong action and easily can be converted to a number of high intensity cartridges; i.e: .405 Win, .444 Marlin, etc.

A 6.5/.303 Epps if it indeed does put out 6.5x55 numbers is not a bad place to be. Likewise the 6mm/.303 Epps. But OTOH, the .30-40 or std .303 can come near to .308 Win ballistics. Which is not a bad place to be either.

Any of the above would make a great "Fun Gun" but hardly a serious hunting tool. What I mean is: I would not want to replace a modern .308 or .30-06 rifle with any Mk-1 or Mk-4 Enfield. But the thought of using one of the "old-timers" to induce myself to the range and log trigger time; makes a lot of sense. Just my $.02 worth, tho' YMMV...

Grasshopper

P.S: You will never make a magnum out of the older Enfield Mk series; (that is, if one does indeed value one's life.)

I think you may be subject to a portion of that confusion my friend.

The SMLE Mk4�s were manufactured from 1941 through the 1960�s. The P14�s were manufactured from 1915 through 1917.

I like the 303, Krieger, Shilen & Pacnor list barrels. You need to get a custom reamer made to the factory brass/ammo. My standard reamer runs .455" and most brass .450" just above the rim, check this on Wildcat reamers.

See? I told you it was confusing. At least I didn't exempt myself from that catagory.

I once owned an Enfield Mk something or other that had been converted to .218 Bee. Not the most classy conversion I ever saw, either. It was modified for a detachable clip magazine. I never had one.

There are those who consider the Lee Enfields to be homely, clunky, rifles with no redeeming virtues and they do have some shortcomings. However, they are also rugged and reliable. The actions tend to be a bit stretchy (especially the #1 models)but they still work.
One major shortcoming (from a sporting rifle standpoint)is that Lee Enfields tend to put bullets of different velocities and weights to widely divergent points of impact. With my 30/40, there is a 4 inch difference in the point of impact of 150 grain bullets in comparison to 180's (the heavier bullets hit higher). On the other hand, as long as I stick to one load, the rifle is very accurate with moa accuracy being quite common.
As I said I've used this rifle as a 30/40 for 25 years and as a 303 for 19 years before that. This rifle has taken more game than all my others combined. If presented with a once in a lifetime hunting opportunity, I would be seriously tempted to take this old rifle! GD

greydog,

I would think that the �shortcoming� you have observed is more barrel and ammo related than it is action related.

I love Lee Enfields, and don�t think they are �ugly� at all. A bit different, YES, but ugly...no way.

Have you ever seen that film of the British soldier rapid firing a Lee-Enfield? Granted, allot of the speed is coming from the skill of the shooter, but the rounds are coming out almost as fast as a semi-auto.

from wikipedia

Lee Enfield Mk1 thru Mk4

The Lee-Enfield was, in various marks and models, the British Army's standard bolt-action, magazine-fed, repeating rifle for over 60 years from (officially) 1895[1] until 1957[2], although it remained in British service well into the early 1960s and is still found in service in the armed forces of some Commonwealth nations[3]. In its many versions, it was the standard army service rifle for the first half of the 20th century, and was adopted by Britain's colonies and Commonwealth allies, including India, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
The Lee-Enfield was chambered for the .303 British cartridge, and featured a ten-round box magazine which was loaded manually from the top, either one round at a time, or by means of five-round chargers. The Lee-Enfield superseded the earlier Martini-Henry, Martini-Enfield, and Lee-Metford rifles, and although officially replaced in the UK with the L1A1 SLR in 1957, it continues to see official service in a number of British Commonwealth nations to the present day- notably with the Indian Police- and is the longest-serving military bolt-action rifle still in official service.[4]
Total production of all Lee-Enfields is estimated at over 17 million rifles,[5] making it one of the most numerous military bolt-action rifles ever produced- second only to the Russian Mosin-Nagant M91/30, which was itself a contemporary design.

Tim