Will .314" boolits run through a Lee Enfield?

[BHuij]

I bought a Lee .312 185gr RN mold to make boolits for my old Mosin Nagant 91/30, which slugged at .3135." The boolit drops a little over .313, then a PC and size back down to .314. They work fantastic in my Mosin.

A buddy of mine has a Lee Enfield that shoots .303 British, and he recently acquired some dies to reload for it.

I loaded up 10 rounds of his brass with my standard Mosin load: 23.0 grains of IMR 4227, with my 185 gr boolit seated fairly long. It's a light load, shoots around 1800FPS which seems to be a great place for accuracy with this boolit, and since .303 British and 7.62x54R are such similar cartridges, I think the load would translate well to his rifle. I full-length sized with the 303 Brit die, expanded the neck with my Lee universal neck expander die, seated with the 303 die, and crimped with my 7.62x54R factory crimp (very light crimp, just enough to remove the belling).

My real question is whether a .314" boolit will run through an Enfield? We haven't had a chance to slug his bore. The rifle is really beat up, and I understand that .303 British is nominally a .311" groove diameter. Presumably, British manufacturing tolerances were tighter than Soviet ones, so I'm guessing the likelihood that his bore is a whole lot larger than .311 is pretty low unless his barrel is shot out or corroded (very possible). But is there a chance it's much smaller than .311"? If his bore is, say, .309", then shoving a .314" boolit through, even air-cooled wheel weight alloy, is probably asking for trouble. If it's .311" or larger, I'd say we're probably fine.

Insight would be appreciated.

[John McCorkle]

Unfortunately the only real way to know is to slug to confirm bore size. I've seen some variation on production Enfield rifles that would be ok on the larger end of specs and likely not on smaller end of specs. You can get a customer push through sizer from Lee if you need to and with it just right squeeze tons of accuacy out of that rifle (provided the bore is good) I wouldnt try it without slugging the bore....a sizing die is alot cheaper than a barrel replacement

Sent from my Moto G Play using Tapatalk

[JMax]

I shoot an NOE 314-202 sized to .314” using 12.1 gr of Unique with 2” 10 round Groups. The rifle is a No 4 MKII 1 Longbranch made in 1944 with a 5 groove barrel. Each rifle is different so slug the barrel to know for sure.

[Outpost75]

It would be VERY unusual to find a Lee Enfield as snug as .311". You should have good results with .314", but some rifles of wartime manufacture may need cast bullets as large as .316".

[mdi]

As stated above, groove diameters vary greatly
My Lee Enfield slugs out as .318"...

[Jack Stanley]

If you found one that has a .311" groove you would be fortunate indeed . The tightest I ever found was on a number four mark two that measured .3125" I've had three that was .318" or larger and a couple that was .317"

My current number one mark three is .315"

Jack

[BHuij]

Jeez, I always assumed Mosins were the "loose bore" champions of WW2 battle rifles. Figured mine was actually in pretty good shape at only .3135" and very crisp rifling - with groupings to support that theory. But I've never heard of a Mosin that slugged at .318", and would have figured Enfields had better QC coming out of the armory.

Well I'll leave it up to him. If he wants to try these out without slugging, it's his fingers. But it seems like it would be worth our time to just bring an egg sinker and a dowel to the range with us to be totally sure before we pull the trigger. I think the likelihood of a problem with .314" boolits is low, particularly if it chambers the round easily. But better safe than sorry.

[retread]

My Mark 4 slugs out at .3145 I use a .316.

[303Guy]

The boolit needs to fit the throat, never mind the bore. The leade will size the boolit to fit the bore. If it chambers, shoot it. But 23grs IMR 4227 may be a little high - the 303 Brit case is smaller than the Mosin case but pressure will be Ok. I have loaded 22gr of H4227 under 214gr boolits. Pressure was moderate.

If your friend's bore is shot out or rough you might suggest he paper patches for it if it won't group well.

[dondiego]

Jeez, I always assumed Mosins were the "loose bore" champions of WW2 battle rifles. Figured mine was actually in pretty good shape at only .3135" and very crisp rifling - with groupings to support that theory. But I've never heard of a Mosin that slugged at .318", and would have figured Enfields had better QC coming out of the armory.

Well I'll leave it up to him. If he wants to try these out without slugging, it's his fingers. But it seems like it would be worth our time to just bring an egg sinker and a dowel to the range with us to be totally sure before we pull the trigger. I think the likelihood of a problem with .314" boolits is low, particularly if it chambers the round easily. But better safe than sorry.

Make sure that "dowel" is made out of brass! Wood can be a problem.

[Jack Stanley]

Chambers the round easy?!??! My Lithgow would accept .320" bullets I wouldn't be surprised if some had even larger chambers .

[303Guy]

Chambers the round easy?!??! My Lithgow would accept .320" bullets I wouldn't be surprised if some had even larger chambers .

Sounds right - .320 is the size that seats in an unsized neck.

[newrib]

Have your .303 friend clean the bore of all jacket material before slugging or shooting cast from his rifle. Copper acts like sandpaper to a cast bullet. I shoot alot of .303s a few pointers if I may:use brass that has been fired in that rifle, then neck size just enough to hold a bullet I use a Lee Collet Neck Size Die. I have never slugged any of my .303 rifles, filling the throat is more important with cast bullets. What I do is take a fired case from the rifle I am loading for then check the inside diameter of the neck on the fired case using something of a known diameter such as a pin gauge ,a decapping pin or a bullet, then subtract .001 from that diameter. that is the diameter that my bullets are sized to. Then the cases are neck sized with a Lee Collet Neck Size Die to about .001 less than the diameter of a the bullet you will use. That works for me. I learned that method here at Cast Bullets. Best of luck to you and your friend.