I think maybe a sticky laying out the basics of case preparation and reloading for Lee Enfields would probably be more useful here on a cast bullet website. The "Lee Enfields have excess headspace!" fable is strong on the Internet. Meanwhile, the number of people here who are sling and belly shooters, poking away at long range, is probably pretty minimal.Originally Posted by Der Gebirgsjager
Brit NRA... predates our NRA by a few decades. I wonder how much the originators of the NRA here cribbed off the Brit NRA as far as aims and ideals, sort of like the Second Amendment (and it's state predecessors) may have been cribbed or at least inspired by the English Bill of Rights.I wonder...in the information they refer the sight as being suitable for the National Rifle Assn. Are they talking about our NRA or the British version?
Canada's DCRA was founded in 1868, New Zealand's National Rifle Association dates back to about 1877, the NRA of Australia a few years later, etc. The Commonwealth nations have been organized for long range plinking with service rifles for a century and a half. Most of it, overwhelmingly, with various versions of Lee Enfields. Lee-Metfords were apparently preferred by some competitors up into the 1930's.
https://nra.org.uk/home-page/
Last Long Branch 93L - 95L serial number rifles I saw at gun shows that appeared unfired/unissued had price tags on them of around $1100. You don't want to lose a magazine and find out what a replacement original sells for.I have a sizeable accumulation of Lee Enfields myself, including two perhaps unfired Long Branch late production models.
Long Branches are generally considered to be the zenith of Lee Enfield craftmanship, although a friend has a BSA No.1 Mk. III, dated 1917, with fit and wood & metal finish that makes it look like it was built for the commercial firearms trade. Looks like it just came off the assembly floor, not so much as a handling mark on it. Same guy just paid north of $2000 for a Long Lee in pristine condition. I might have some detail pictures of that 1917 BSA somewhere.
I'm old enough to remember when hardware stores had barrels full of Lee Enfields, P14s and P17s, etc sitting in a corner somewhere, priced at around $10 apiece as I remember. My first hunting rifle was/is a bubba'd (now I think, sadly) P17 that I watched my dad pull out of one of those barrels. He gave it to my grandfather, a machinist, and when I saw it next the barrel was slightly bobbed, a bunch of the wood trimmed off, the sight ears ground or milled down, and it was sporting a Stith mount that held a used Weaver K4 scope. Still have that rifle... hefting it now, I think the Old Man's plan was to make me lug that heavy thing up and down mountains hunting elk and sheep with him to put some muscle on my bones. Still feels heavy...
The choice between having a rear sight mounted on the barrel versus an adjustable rear aperture on the No. 4, along with the accompanying longer sight radius makes that an easy choice for me.I think that they were still the No.4 Mk. I version. I've always preferred the No.1 Mk. III model myself, but would be hard put to offer a coherent reason for that preference.
That's a pretty nice group from the looks of it. From an enthusiast's viewpoint, you need to rig your slings properly; as far as I can tell, not all of them are. The hooks go to the outside; the brass band to the inside.
The only Lee Enfield Bubba that I ever owned, I bought an already Bubba'd No. 4, and in a conspiracy involving Ken Mollahan, reBubbaed and rebarrelled it into a .40 caliber Mexican Mauser for use as a bear wrench in camp. Sold it after I acquired the BLR in .358 Winchester; wish I hadn't done that - it moved a big heavy hunk of lead at pretty impressive velocities. The last I heard, the guy who bought it to move up to the North West Territories with his new bride, was still using it to knock down moose and caribou. Ugly as it was, I doubt riding around on an ATV or snowmobile hurts the looks of it too much.
I saw some Greek HXP online somewhere a few years ago, going for almost $2/round. I can't remember how many cases I bought when the word got out on the match circuit how good it was and cheap at the same time, but I bought a lot of it. Still have somewhere around a half thou left. I was going with the thought of pulling the bullets and charge, then putting a false shoulder on, then recharging and reseating to get maximum life out of the brass. But when I saw how tight my Long Branch is, and how minimal the stretching is just firing it as it is, I decided the juice just didn't justify the squeeze. Especially if the accuracy of the re-assembled ammunition was less than that of the unaltered ammunition.You're spot on about the high quality of the Greek .303 ammo. I bought several hundred rounds of it when it was available, and just last year acquired about 500 once-fired empties from another Forum member.
My position and belief is that the ready availability of Privi Partisan brass for Lee Enfield reloaders means guys today don't have to sniffle about missing out on the Greek HXP, Radway Green, etc primo ball ammo that did so well over the course. Quality ammunition like that, selling at bargain basement pricing was an awesome thing. But that ammo like the rocking horse has bolted, and you cannot find the poop anyway it's that hard to get when you can find it.
I've measured the crap out of WWII dated Mark VII, HXP cases and Privi Partisan, unfired and fired and trimmed, and there is little difference between any of them as far as rim thickness and other case measurements. That's why my invariable suggestion to those starting reloading for Lee Enfields is invest a few extra shekels and buy a couple of hundred cases of Privi Partisan. Properly form a false shoulder, minimal resizing, and finger/flame annealing (for those of us that don't have annealers) every few firings, and the PP cases will last a long, long, long time.
I'm not so crazy about fired casings of any make from some other Lee Enfield. They could be a great deal - or they could have been fired out of a Lee Enfield with a No. 3 bolt head that is about to accept a no-go gauge... I'd rather avoid having to not even think about potential problems with brass. If quality brass wasn't readily available at very reasonable prices, then I'd be all over once fired HXP like a fat kid on the last brownie on a tray.
Restoration of Lee Enfields is really taking off, including new barrel manufacture for those who can't find or can't bother finding an original. Wood is still readily available, etc. But it is getting pricier all the time. The one thing you can't address is a modified receiver (and in my personal opinion, non matching bolts).Not wanting to ruin the day of pure collectors, but I also have several sporterized No.1s, but only one No.4. Here and there I encountered Lee Enfields that had already passed through the hands of Bubba and couldn't be put back to as-issued without installing new barrels (not always easy to find) so I finished the jobs, and they came out very nicely.
My brother the Ross Rifle nut is just putting the finishing touches to his faux No. 4 sniper. He found a Bubba'ed wartime Long Branch of the right year for the Long Branch snipers, managed to find a Long Branch sniper butt for his rifle, found an Alaskan scope of the period, then shelled out the dinero for the replica scope mounting bits and a new barrel (Lothar Walther? I can't remember). He said it was pretty close to being a bug hole shooter with some of his remaining HXP, so he was really happy.
Anyways, fixing a lot of what Bubba has done over the years is often quite possible if you care, and are willing to search, and sometimes willing to shell out the money to do that. Some fixes are quite inexpensive. The last all matching Long Branch sniper, complete in transit case, that I saw had an $8000 price tag on it... makes me cry when I remember regularly seeing them at gun shows back in the 1980's with $400 price tags on them, and I wondered why anyone would want an old wartime bolt action Lee Enfield with a really old low powered scope on it so badly they'd pay $400 for it...
I've accumulated quite a stash of Lee Enfield stuff, complete to the manuals Canadian military gun plumbers had for servicing the Long Branch Lee Enfields. Reynold's book, Skip Stratton's book, the DCRA diagrams on modifying the military stock for Service Rifle competition, etc. And a recent one out there by an Aussie (I think, maybe a Kiwi) that purports to be the definitive guide to accurizing the Lee Enfield rifle. That one was well worth the coin to buy it; most of the rest can be found for download on sites like the Milsurp one I mentioned earlier.
If you're short of something, drop me a PM or email or whatever, and I'll see if I have it in .pdf form.
If somebody over at the Milsurps web forums can't answer any question regarding Lee Enfield rifles, then you probably didn't really need to know in the first place. That's my go to website - until the subject of casting for Lee Enfields comes up. There... they're not quite so expert....
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