No.4Mk1 help

[brimic]

I just picked up a nice No.4 Mk1 and am pretty much unfamiliar with these rifles. I was half expecting to see a 5 groove barrel on it, but it has a 2-groove which is kind of odd looking as the grooves are very narrow.

Does anyone have a boolet reccomendation for this rifle as a starting point?

[NVcurmudgeon]

My No. 4 has been very accurate with Lyman #314299 205 gr. sized .314" for its .3138" groove diameter. However my rifle has a five groove barrel. This boolit has a long, bore riding nose, which should work well in two grooves, whch offer a lot of guidance to bore riders. Best load so far has been 16.0 gr. Alliant 2400 @ 1500 fps.

[KCSO]

The two groove barrels on the #4's I have had have run from 312 to 315 and you have to make your choice accordingly. I have found that if a bullet is not shooting well in a 2 groove that cornmeal filler will sometimes take a load from unstable to an adaquate shooter. My current 2 groove #4 is a Savage and it has a perfect bore with a 314 diameter and the best shooting bullet is the Lee 155 gr spire point made for the SKS. I lube the bullet in a 317 die and shoot it as cast at jus a little over 315 and it shoots fine at 100 yards. The Lee 185 Beagled and seated over filler also shoots well, but without filler will not group. You might want to go to the Lee Enfield Collectors site and check out their notes on cast bullets and reloading. I don't have it book marked on this computer so I will post a link later.

[Buckshot]

............The problem with any of the 'Fat 30's" is the lack of adequate cast boolit designs out there. This is what prompted a couple of custom orders to Lee. Needing a slug to go .316" to be sized to the sometimes encountered fatter fat 30 barrel dimensions. Currently you have one each from Saeco, RCBS, and Lyman. Lyman's 314299 being listed at .314" the fattest.

Lee has 3 but they list at .312". These are the C312-185R, C312-155-2R, and the C312-160-2R/TL. You may or may not get one dropping a bit fatter slug. If so a higher alloyed slug (lino) may add the extra thousandth or so you might need.

I have a M1909 Argentine mountain rifle (Cavalry carbine, whatever) which has a .303"x.314" barrel and my Lyman 314299 couldn't meet the nose diameter. I couldn't get it to shoot. I fell back on a Loverin design to get away from the pesky fat land diameter. What I did was to use the Lyman 323470, 8mm 165gr slug. I lube-sized it .323" and then squirted it up through a .314" push through size die.

The rifle shot MUCH better. However it has the standard Mauser boreform of 4 narrow lands and 4 wide grooves.

There are several SMLE shooters around and you should get some more input from them too.

............Buckshot