New Project Enfield Mk4#1

[Dan Cash]

J.R.
This forum is not a card game or a place to trump another guy. You should take your fullness of self and seek humility.

I went over to the Lee Enfield Forum on Gunboard's seeking knowledge, looking for parts, and to share this project.

Apparently I have riled some of the So Called "Purist's" over there with my Destruction of this gun.

I just love the 'Purists.' They are just so far above the rest of us Peons.

Incidentally,,, Jr86,,, is one of the Refugees from over there who is seeking knowledge on Casting Boolits so that he might actually shoot his gun a little more often, and he will be well received here.

Yeah you came to the right place.

I actually had one of the Purists question how much more Cast Boolits would wear the bore, than the nearly perfect jacketed bullets prescribed for use in the Queens rifles.

I love the part of the game where the other guy shows you his hand just before you double down.

Randy

[Multigunner]

And I bet the barrel was made at Smith Corona for Savage on the same Pratt and Whitney machines right along side the 6 groove Springfield barrels they were making at the time for the guns they were manufacturing in house.

Makes perfect sense and I bet further research would confirm the theory.

Randy

Actually the opposite is closer to fact.
Savage made six groove barrels for its early No.4 production and sold six groove barrel blanks to High Standard. High Standard then used these blanks to make six groove Springfield barrels for Smith Corona.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dan Cash: You're probably right on that one. Sometimes I do exhibit fullness of self.

I do hate being insulted by people who don't even know me, and sometimes I do react inappropriately as a result.

Everybody has their own justifications for acting the way that they do. I'm no different.

Multigunner: I knew there had to be a connection.

Randy

[seagiant]

Hi,
Nice rifle Randy! Good job as usual! These rifles are known for accuracy and the speed of the bolt!

I thought the cut down model was known as the "Jungle Carbine" used in the Far East during WWII!

I use the same slings for my own rifles and usually the leather and fittings are of good quality but the stitching is some times suspect? No big deal for me as I leather work a little and can improve on that if need be. Anything better is over double the price and not really "correct" as they say!

[Love Life]

You got get that rifle to the range, Randy.

[PAT303]

The mods over at Gun Boards are a bit anal,I won't be joining. Pat

[W.R.Buchanan]

Pat: They Closed my thread and didn't even have the courtesy to PM me and let me know. I don't know about "anal" but maybe there is a synonym from that area.

I won't be posting there again and won't be back at all except to answer PM's from some new friends. Most of them will end up here. One of them actually got chastised for posting pics of his modified Enfield's on my thread in support of my project.

Greg: the #5 Jungle Carbine was more than just cut down. It was severely lightened as well. Due to this lightening they are supposed to suffer from "Wandering Zero."

Mine is full length and only the Fore End and Hand Guard were shortened, all the barrel is still there.

Randy

[Love Life]

Randy: Next up is you should go to Sniper's Hide and call a plain vanilla heavy barrel 308 an M40...

[PAT303]

Pat: They Closed my thread and didn't even have the courtesy to PM me and let me know. I don't know about "anal" but maybe there is a synonym from that area.

I won't be posting there again and won't be back at all except to answer PM's from some new friends. Most of them will end up here. One of them actually got chastised for posting pics of his modified Enfield's on my thread in support of my project.

Greg: the #5 Jungle Carbine was more than just cut down. It was severely lightened as well. Due to this lightening they are supposed to suffer from "Wandering Zero."

Mine is full length and only the Fore End and Hand Guard were shortened, all the barrel is still there.

Randy

All I see is a bloke who rescued a cut up enfield and put it back to good use,who cares if it's not original,it's shooting again by someone who appreciates it. Pat

[Frank46]

One thing about enfield stripper clips. There are usually burrs where the round cutouts are. So being the resourceful guy that I am proceeded to take some 320 silicon carbide paper on a small flat file and then sand the inside of the clips. Finished up with 400 grit silicon carbide paper. No more scratching and digging brass out of the cases. Privi cases for the 303 are probably the closest one out there, with the greek HXP 303 cases. Other brands like rem, win and federal all show enourmous bulges when fired the first time. And great job on your enfield. Looks like a L39A1 I used to have. Stupid me I sold it off when the no go guage was swallowed in the chamber, shame as it had a hammer forged barrel and in 7.62 nato not 308. Frank

[jr86]

I went over to the Lee Enfield Forum on Gunboard's seeking knowledge, looking for parts, and to share this project.

Apparently I have riled some of the So Called "Purist's" over there with my Destruction of this gun.

I just love the 'Purists.' They are just so far above the rest of us Peons.

Incidentally,,, Jr86,,, is one of the Refugees from over there who is seeking knowledge on Casting Boolits so that he might actually shoot his gun a little more often, and he will be well received here.

Yeah you came to the right place.

Randy

Just to be clear I think your "restoration" is a phenomenal idea! If there was any misunderstanding lol. I think it's a great approach for guys who have cut barrels who can't make full wood. (Or don't want to, that's cool too!)

I would be a little sad if you took a full wood original and turned it into a sporter... But taking a crappy old sporter and making it beautiful is a Justice to enfield lovers everywhere!

my main forum is canadian gun nutz and I think that your enfield would be well accepted there amongst us enfield lovers.

as for shooting. I have 2 enfields a no1 and no4 and they both see extensive use to the tune of 100+ rounds per weekend. However I only use cast boolits because of the obvious price advantage.

today my long branch saw 100 rounds of 185gr .312 no gas check with 7gr of Win231. Gives me around 4"-5" at 100 yards and it's a great way to use up the not so pretty projectiles I get while casting. In the end it costs me less per shot than a .22lr as well.

happy shooting and long live the silver stream.

[zuke]

In the past I've put target's on 5 gallon pail's filled with sand. When done shooting I poured the pail thru a screen to recover my lead.
When the pail got too holey I put a piece of foam inside then filled it with sand. The foam seal up after each shot keeping the sand in.

[303Guy]

Great idea, zuke!

[W.R.Buchanan]

jr86: I got exactly where you're coming from and I am pretty much on the same page with you. The condition of the gun dictates what should or should not be done to it. Lets face it there are a lot of Military weapons out there and there are plenty to satisfy "everyone's" needs no matter what those needs may be.

If your barrel is in good condition we can probably help up tighten up those groups a little and like I said you will be well received here.

And just to let you know,,, the most positive responses I have gotten on this project are from the Canadians, both current and Ex,,, and my Australian, and Kiwi friends. I personally think these groups are more inclined to be users rather than strictly collectors. Nothing wrong with collecting, I just feel you should use what you collect,,, IMHO.

Anyway if I can be of any help just let me know.

Zuke: another great idea! I still have to do my Stripper clips in wax like you suggested.

Question? Do you have a Suzuki Samuari? and have we crossed paths on a trail somewhere?

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Started in sizing boolits for this gun tonight. didn't want to get too far ahead of myself so I only did 5 before making some dummy rounds to test function of the gun.

I had some once fired cases I got from a friend here. So I figured I'd FL size them. This was a mistake and the first case crushed the base slightly. I realize everybody has said to neck size only but I figured they could at least go thru one sizing.

So I backed the die out so that it would only neck size and went ahead and did 5 cases.

I also sized 5 boolits without lube and omitted the gas check as well.

Pushed the boolits into the cases and then reset the die to crimp. Viola! 5 dummy rounds.

Off to the house to test the feeding before I loaded up a bunch of scrap.

Results,,,NOT that great.

It feeds off the left side of the magazine pretty well,,, Right side, not so much.

Also it does tend to gouge up the boolits fairly well.

Obviously some fine tuning to be done here.

Any advice on tuning the magazine would be welcome.

Here's a pic of my Pretty Dummy rounds after I rebuffed them .

Randy

[Multigunner]

Greg: the #5 Jungle Carbine was more than just cut down. It was severely lightened as well. Due to this lightening they are supposed to suffer from "Wandering Zero."

Mine is full length and only the Fore End and Hand Guard were shortened, all the barrel is still there.

Randy

Before they settled on the final No.5 design they built a few prototype cut down No.4 rifles to test the concept. These prototypes had a fore end very much like that of the early No.5 fore end without metal nose cap.
The butt stock was the same as that of the No.4.
Rather than an 18 inch barrel with flash hider mounted they machined the cut down No.4 barrel with the same sight base locator lugs and bayonet lugs as that of the No.4.
Due to the smaller diameter of the barrel at the cut off point they had to build up the lugs by brazing. If they had gone into production they would have purpose made the barrels so that would not have been necessary.
OAL of the rifle was the same as the No.5 , which meant the barrel itself was about 21-22 inches long.

Some No.5 rifles with spread receivers that flexed when hot , which was the major cause of wandering zero, were repaired by substituting No.4 receivers.

[303Guy]

Those dummy rounds look real purty. They look like they mean business!

I have one magazine that has lost its innards which makes a great spent case catcher. I just extract the fired case slowly and it drops in. The down side is if one fumbles with feeding a fresh round it too falls into the mag.

Someone is selling a No5 on our local TradeMe. It has the scope mount bridge cut off! I'm not even following it. Actually, I should post the photo of it on one or two of the 'purist' forums.

[PAT303]

In the past I've put target's on 5 gallon pail's filled with sand. When done shooting I poured the pail thru a screen to recover my lead.
When the pail got too holey I put a piece of foam inside then filled it with sand. The foam seal up after each shot keeping the sand in.

I had a timber box a CAT pump came in,I packed it with about 10'' of conveyor belt rubber and backed by a piece of 6mm steel plate to catch my boolits,CBE 225grn over 40grns of AR2209 zipped straight through like it wasn't there. Pat

[zuke]

jr86: I got exactly where you're coming from and I am pretty much on the same page with you. The condition of the gun dictates what should or should not be done to it. Lets face it there are a lot of Military weapons out there and there are plenty to satisfy "everyone's" needs no matter what those needs may be.

If your barrel is in good condition we can probably help up tighten up those groups a little and like I said you will be well received here.

And just to let you know,,, the most positive responses I have gotten on this project are from the Canadians, both current and Ex,,, and my Australian, and Kiwi friends. I personally think these groups are more inclined to be users rather than strictly collectors. Nothing wrong with collecting, I just feel you should use what you collect,,, IMHO.

Anyway if I can be of any help just let me know.

Zuke: another great idea! I still have to do my Stripper clips in wax like you suggested.

Question? Do you have a Suzuki Samuari? and have we crossed paths on a trail somewhere?

Randy

I had one, now I have a Geo Tracker.I've never been to california, sorry.

When I was 19 I went to an MNR auction looking for a doner Enfield and I ended up with a 2 groove Savage with a full length barrel. I cut it at 19inch's and built the stock as you see. I moved the sling on the butt stock because the bolt knob was digging in my back.
I did this when I was 19, I turned 48 in May

[W.R.Buchanan]

Zuke: There was a guy down here, and I thought he was actually from Canada, who was fairly well known on the trails 15 years ago. He Obviously drove a highly modified Samurai, and was known as "Zuke."

I am a big proponent of side mounted slings. All of my various carbines have them mounted that way specifically so the magazines don't dig into your back.

One 4 day class at Front Sight where you are standing around half the time will cure just about anyone of a poorly mounted sling. It'll also cure you of shooting heavy guns. The guy next to me shot a M1A that weighed in at 13 lbs. My Kel-Tec weighs 6lbs 1oz with two loaded mags in the buttstock. He was allover my gun wanting to know everything about it so he could get one.

I am going to play with the mag in the #4 today and see if I can't get it to feed right and not gouge the boolits.

Randy