Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Mausers and Military Rifles .358" cartridges for Lee Enfield?

Got a very shot out bubba Lee Enfield, a 1916 No1Mk3, that is in desperate need of a barrel. I've also got a spare .358" blank. Any recommendations for a chambering that would fit the magazine, feed well, and be roughly within what the action can handle? Current leaders are 35 Whelen x57R, 350 Rem Mag, and 35-303, but I'm open to suggestions for something ideally more readily available

I think the .35-303 is about your only real choice.

Well, and a 35x53R. That's the other one I forgot earlier that should work. 350 is off the table, but the others (35 whelen dies shortened to reform 8x57R brass, 7.62x54R necked up to 358, and 35-303) are all still wildcats on the table

35 Krag, maybe ?

Maybe send it off to JES and have it rebored to .35, and save the .358 barrel blank for another project? A .35-303 would be interesting and surely the old girl would accommodate it. A JES rebore is very affordable, but then there's the issue of custom dies. Just how much money do you wish to throw at a 100 year old No.1 MkIII? On the other hand it would save having to profile the new barrel to fit the stock.

I like building unique firearms from older rifles that are fubar, such as my 6.5x55 Arisaka and 6.5x57 Gewehr 88/05. I'm mostly considering the .358" bore because A) if I don't have to buy a barrel, I can put more towards other aspects like the machine work and making better wood for it than the butchered military wood on the rifle, B) I want something between my 450 Bush and the various .30 cal rifles I own, and C) I'd like to keep the ammunition costs (including dies) down a little if I can, which is part of why I figured Id ask if there were any decent chamberings this community could think of that werent wildcats like most the ones I'm currently debating.


I'm not opposed to a rebore per say, but a buddy wants to use the barrel for a 7.62x39 carcano and offered enough that I'm not too concerned about trying to have it rebored if I can get the barrel off.

Another hand in the air for the 35-303. A possible option might be checking out how Ishapore set up the 2A in 308 and making a 358 win. It'd be wise to not use full power loads in it. IIRC the 303 brit runs 49k psi or so, quite a bit under 358 pressure.

The hardest part with a 358 win conversion (other than avoiding the temptation to run factory ammunition) is probably going to be the magazine, the repro 2A1 magazines suck some major kahones and originals are thought cookies to find. The extractor is a simple enough swap.

As I stated before, I'd go .35-303. It's the path of least resistance. CH4D list the dies, so at least you can find out their dimensions and try to match your reamer as close as possible. When I was trying wildcats the KISS method always worked best. Why deviate from the cartridge case the rifle is designed to work with? If I wanted to try something really oddball, then my Encore was the action for that.

And the subject of action strength came up too. You can't compare a 1950's vintage Ishapore Enfield purpose-built for .308, and an old tired WWI-vintage No.1MarkIII. Different steel, and you don't know for sure what pressures were generated by the cartridges the Ishapore arsenal built them for. Some guys load their ammo for Ishapores to a fare-thee-well, and some get away with no problems and some report growing headspace issues. Dunno what to say about that but it's food for thought. For my money, I would be disinclined to manhandle an old Lee Enfield with a cartridge it was never intended for. Century-old steel (that was cutting edge for its time but lacking by today's standards) coupled with a rear locking lug design I feel would probably start showing headspace stretching fairly quickly when asked to bottle up 50K psi ammo. To me that makes another case for the .35-303, and even then I would stick with modest performance loads and not try to make it perform like a .358 Winchester.

35-303 dies will set you back $116 from CH4D, if they have them on the shelf. If not on the shelf, 18-24 mo wait time.

Send a PM to Steve Redgwell. 303 variants is one of the things he does best!

Get your dies first! This ain't the 1960's, schit is plain unobtainium these days.

Hah! Just use the reamer that cuts the wildcat chamber by grinding a skinch off it to make a sizing die. But first make a straight line seating die with the reamer before grinding it. 'Tain't rocket science, gunsmith's have been doing that for over 100 years (those that deserve to be called gunsmith's that is). First step, secure a piece of 7/8-14 alloy steel all-thread (or make it), and learn how to harden it afterwards. Nothing like a set of loading dies made with the same reamer as was used for the chamber for the best chance at accuracy.

35 Winchester. Redding dies in stock, $99.

I think that may be a winner, as it looks like 8x65r Brenneke brass can be used as well

I agree with the others that recommended the .35-.303 chambering. Australians shooters and hunters rechambered/rebarreled Lee Enfields to a lot of calibers years ago. Interesting stuff.