rebulit BSA 303

[303carbine]

I found a full wood 1927 Lithgow 303 that had a horrible bore, my 303 headspace gauge nearly fell down the barrel. The Lithgow was not a shooter, so I thought I would use the furniture for a rebuild project.
I had a good donor 1940 BSA 303 sporter given to me for reloading some bullets. It had good headspace and and all the metal was intact with a shiny bore.
All of the Lithgow wood dropped onto the BSA like it was made for it, the mag fit as well without modification and feeds smoothly.
The Lithgow bolt also fits, feeds and headspaces properly, that was a bonus if I need a replacement bolthead or bolt.
I stripped all of the parts off the Lithgow down to the bare receiver and barrel, I went over to a friends house to see if I could spin the barrel off and save the receiver,that's when we found what looked like a fracture in the receiver.
The barrel and receiver were crushed in his vice, I did this so that nobody would ever find the parts and try to repair and shoot it.
I posted my results on another Enfield site, the fuddy duddies there would rather me have an unsafe wall hanger than a nicely rebuilt shooter. These were the same fudds that said I can't form 30-40 brass into 303 British. Being a hunter, I can't have a rifle rust on a nail on a wall somewhere.
I have pics of the finished rebuild, if somebody could post the pics for me that would be great. Email me at deerslayer@shaw.ca
Thanks, John

[Jack Stanley]

It's not like you converted a Lee-Navy to three hundred blackout ..... sounds to me like you took a reasonably common rifle that was unsafe and made it into something you can use . I sure can't fault you for that though there are places that think every rifle is untouchable . There are folks like that everywhere I remember when I suggested loading the British case with black powder . A man who should have known better told me it would blow up .

Soooo ..... ya got plans to begin woodchuck patrols , rabbit control , deer assasination ?

Jack

[Gtek]

You have to love the Blue Blood "fudds". I have spent all my life gaining great pleasure at every opportunity tweaking them. Great move on crushing, one way to do it. In the end it is your pile, dance around, step, roll in it anyway you wish and to ---- with them. Enjoy! Gtek

[303carbine]

It's not like you converted a Lee-Navy to three hundred blackout ..... sounds to me like you took a reasonably common rifle that was unsafe and made it into something you can use . I sure can't fault you for that though there are places that think every rifle is untouchable . There are folks like that everywhere I remember when I suggested loading the British case with black powder . A man who should have known better told me it would blow up .

Soooo ..... ya got plans to begin woodchuck patrols , rabbit control , deer assasination ?

Jack


I have one deer already this season with a 30-06, now I can build a couple loads for the BSA 303 and find another deer willing to pose for a picture.
I have some 227 grain cast bullets loaded, I think I will try them to see where they print on paper before airmailing one at a deer. A .308 diameter cast bullet in a 303, that oughta rattle a few teacups.:razz:
Yup, rabbit control is doable here as we have invasive European cottontails willing to stay still long enough to intercept a leadogram.

[Jack Stanley]

Lots of thing one can do with the big rimmed Brit case . The rifles ain't half bad either , one of my favorites has always been a number one mark three . Sadly though my eyes are starting to loose focus on the front sight . It'd be nice if wider front sight were readily available .

Normally the yodelmutts keep the rabbits under control here but I did see one the other day . I have lots of paper that needs ventilating though so I do keep busy .

Jack

[Multigunner]

While a 1927 Lithgow if all parts were original and correct would be a fairly sought for collectors item to some who would have no intention of ever firing it, its unlikely one in this sad shape was still fully original.
Some collectors would gladly trade a good condition Lithgow of a more commonly encountered time frame for a shot out 1927 with cracked receiver just to fill a space in their collection. If so the rifle should be deactivated.
That particular rifle sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
I remember one collector bragging of still shooting an old LE with cracks in the receiver ring.
Some of these sorts of collector don't really understand the mechanics of firearms, and aren't very interested in the safety of other shooters on the line. When an Enfield bolthead shatters other shooters and bystanders are more likely to be injured than the man pulling the trigger. Even range officers have been seriously injured by broken away bolt heads.

The NRA UK has had to reissue warnings on firing the Enfield rifles with rain wet ammunition, which is the major cause of cracked action bodies.

While the .303 cartridge was originally loaded with a compressed cylinder of black powder weighing 70 grains you can't get that much regular BP in the case without compressing the load to a dangerous level. Using FFFFG in attempt to get more powder in the case might cause a dangerous situation.
Its not possible to duplicate the original BP loads because they loaded the cylinder in the case before the shoulder was formed.
A number of early Lee Metford rifles blew out their boltheads when the cylinders of BP became broken up during transit.
Ordinarily the cylinder burns relatively slowly from its inner tunnel outwards like a solid rocket motor, providing a progressive burn and smooth acceleration similar to that of smokeless powders.

Lighter loads of a suitable granule size black powder should cause no problems, performance would be in the class of the .32-40

[Jack Stanley]

Not being a collector myself that explains a 1927 Lithgow rather well thanks .

I can't begin to recall all the ammo in different cartridges with 32-40 level of performance and had a lot of safe fun with them all .

Jack

[rondog]

I just wish I could get nice new barrels for all my Enfields so they would be accurate again. I enjoy shooting them, but it would be nice if they performed well. That damned Cordite ammo.....

[Multigunner]

I just wish I could get nice new barrels for all my Enfields so they would be accurate again. I enjoy shooting them, but it would be nice if they performed well. That damned Cordite ammo.....

Cordite burned out a lot of barrels, but the normal slack in bore size vs bullet size of the single base loaded milspec ammo meant accelerated erosion as well. Regular smokeless powders just didn't bump up bullets well enough to prevent blow by. At max acceptable bore size theres as much as .007 difference when using .311 bullets.
If you are lucky enough to find an Enfield with bore size at the minimum acceptance level it will last just about forever with modern powders. Bullets soft enough to bump up well increase bore life by preventing blow by. The Hornady .312 flat base bullets seal the best of any FMJ bullet, and give very good accuracy.
Try the Hornady bullets, you might find your rifles will still perform well with
these.

I got lucky with my SMLE, it slugs at exactly .311, which is actually tighter than the milspec of .313 minimum. This rifle handles any bullet from .308 to .312 just fine.

[rondog]

So does anybody make new barrels for Enfields?

[303Guy]

That damned Cordite ammo.....Cordite can be your friend. It tapers the bore toward the muzzle and enlarges the throat/leade allowing for larger boolits which reduces neck sizing.

I have an interesting 1940 BSA sporter with a muzzle measuring .3087". I dropped a .310 bullet into the throat and measured its position and it would almost touch the rifling if seated with the bullet base flush with the base of the neck. I'm going to measure the bore down its length to see if its reverse tapered. If not I might keep it. The seller says it was accurate.

I was over on the site 303carbine mentioned. It's just plain silly! I got dumped on there too.

[303carbine]

While a 1927 Lithgow if all parts were original and correct would be a fairly sought for collectors item to some who would have no intention of ever firing it, its unlikely one in this sad shape was still fully original.
Some collectors would gladly trade a good condition Lithgow of a more commonly encountered time frame for a shot out 1927 with cracked receiver just to fill a space in their collection. If so the rifle should be deactivated.
That particular rifle sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
I remember one collector bragging of still shooting an old LE with cracks in the receiver ring.
Some of these sorts of collector don't really understand the mechanics of firearms, and aren't very interested in the safety of other shooters on the line. When an Enfield bolthead shatters other shooters and bystanders are more likely to be injured than the man pulling the trigger. Even range officers have been seriously injured by broken away bolt heads.

The NRA UK has had to reissue warnings on firing the Enfield rifles with rain wet ammunition, which is the major cause of cracked action bodies.

While the .303 cartridge was originally loaded with a compressed cylinder of black powder weighing 70 grains you can't get that much regular BP in the case without compressing the load to a dangerous level. Using FFFFG in attempt to get more powder in the case might cause a dangerous situation.
Its not possible to duplicate the original BP loads because they loaded the cylinder in the case before the shoulder was formed.
A number of early Lee Metford rifles blew out their boltheads when the cylinders of BP became broken up during transit.
Ordinarily the cylinder burns relatively slowly from its inner tunnel outwards like a solid rocket motor, providing a progressive burn and smooth acceleration similar to that of smokeless powders.

Lighter loads of a suitable granule size black powder should cause no problems, performance would be in the class of the .32-40


The 27 Lithgow was FTR'd in 54, I suspect the wood was a replacement as well. I did a little research on the 27 and I was hoping I could make some money on it. After I checked it over, I knew it wasn't all original and was an FTR rebuild, then knew I had a good candidate to put the complete full wood back on the sporter BSA. I am glad I did the rebuild, now I have a good shooter and it's original looking and very accurate. If I were to sell it here, I would let the buyer know that it was a rebuild or reclaimed 303, if anyone can post pics I would be appreciative. And the members here can see a nice No1Mk111. I am including my email so if anyone wants to post pics they can, thanks, John
deerslayer@shaw.ca

[303Guy]

Sent email. I'll put those pics up. In the meantime, if you click on the 'insert picture' icon a rather confusing box comes up. Select 'from computer' at the top then 'select files' at the bottom and that will take you into the heart of your computer where you can select the files you want. Click on the file then 'open' and that takes you back to a new box that has the option of selecting another file or uploading the selected files and it's done. It gets more tricky when you want to delete an inserted picture. It deletes but shows the pic as an attachment. Removing that attachment is what gets tricky. Oh, it's best to size the pics down before uploading them. Hope that helps.

[303Guy]

Here she is. Looking good!

826998270082701

In the full sized picture I noticed something interesting.

82703

Two things; there seems to be some peening on the locking lug bearing surfaces and the cocking piece to bolt body clearance seems quite large. I'd suggest checking the headspace and the bolt rotation 'flee play'. It shouldn't lift too much before contacting the cocking piece camming lug.

[303carbine]

Here she is. Looking good!

826998270082701

In the full sized picture I noticed something interesting.

82703

Two things; there seems to be some peening on the locking lug bearing surfaces and the cocking piece to bolt body clearance seems quite large. I'd suggest checking the headspace and the bolt rotation 'flee play'. It shouldn't lift too much before contacting the cocking piece camming lug.


The headspace checks out good, I am going to take a pic with the headspace gauge in and send to you, John

[303carbine]

On further inspection of the BSA, I noticed the barrel is marked HV for the high velocity ammo. I tried 180 grain Speer and it shoots to point of aim, I will load some 150 Hornady's and see if they shoot, I hope they do as I have a couple hundred of them.

[303Guy]

Seat them as far out as possible.

[303carbine]

Seat them as far out as possible.

Hey 303guy,
I did exactly that, I loaded 42 grains of H380 under the 150 grain Hornady's. They grouped under an inch at 52 yards.
I measured the triangular group, it was 1/2 inch on one side, 1/2 inch on one side and 3/4 inch on the third side.
I don't know why, but they outshot the 180 Speer bullets ?, I am thinking because they are .312 diameter and not .311 like the Speer bullets.
I am going to load some more and launch them over the chronograph and see if I am getting near the book velocities.
I usually shoot 180's, but these results tonight will make for a rethink, at least for deer sized game.
I used Winchester large rifle primers and once fired neck sized IVI brass, the bullets were seated to the bottom of the cannelure.

[Artful]

Nice looking rifle - sorry about your other one - when I was a kid and the house burned my dad dug out all the guns - spray painted them gold and hung them out by the road from the barbed wire fence
- it was surprising people even stole those.

[303Guy]

That's great! My 180gr bullets are .310 but they shoot good. I checked the depth the bullet dropped into the throat on a different rifle and they would have the right jump seated to the base of neck. It's all in the ogive and long parallel shank I think. I've used Hornady 150gr spire points in my mint bore MLE and those shot 1¼ MOA 10 shot groups. It was so consistant I could sight it with just a three shot group and finding the centre of the triangle. It shot Speer 180gr RN just as accurately.

I have one IVI case formed to 38/303 that JeffinNZ sent me.

[303carbine]

That's great! My 180gr bullets are .310 but they shoot good. I checked the depth the bullet dropped into the throat on a different rifle and they would have the right jump seated to the base of neck. It's all in the ogive and long parallel shank I think. I've used Hornady 150gr spire points in my mint bore MLE and those shot 1¼ MOA 10 shot groups. It was so consistant I could sight it with just a three shot group and finding the centre of the triangle. It shot Speer 180gr RN just as accurately.

I have one IVI case formed to 38/303 that JeffinNZ sent me.

A 38/303, I would like to see a pic of that loaded round, John[smilie=s:

[303Guy]

8283182832

Beautiful aren't they? Seems about perfect for the Lee Enfield. Over hear they're called the 38 Hawkins.

There's a trick to forming the cases. It's a die that irons out the shoulder area to a uniform thickness. You can see how deep the boolits are seated.