Noe 316 155

[iron brigade]

Has anyone tried this mould for the Enfield rifles? I have the no 1 mark 3 and the no 4 mark 1. I also have tried the lyman 314299 w/o success using different powders and charges. so, if you have any experience with this mould in the Enfields I would like to here about it.

[iron brigade]

I ordered the 316299 as it was in stock.

[longbow]

I am guessing typo and that should read 316299.

If so I have one and it shoots well in my Lee Enfields. Mine all run around 0.314" groove and a little over 0.315" throat. I size to 0.315" and they shoot quite well.

I did find that I had to oven heat treat if I wanted to push velocities at all though. At anything much over a moderate load, recovered boolits were showing slight skidding and gas cutting. Harder alloy solved that for me. A slower powder might also help in that regard with slower acceleration.

I generally load that boolit over 18 to 22 grs. of IMR4227 with good results.

My Lyman 314299 cast at 0.312"/0.313" with my alloy. The NOE casts at 0.315"/0.316" so much better fit.

Longbow

[iron brigade]

thanks longbow. yes on the typo. will try heat treating the bullets. I wanted a shorter bullet but oh well. next year. I loaded up a bunch with squib loads. 5-7 grains of fast powder w/o GC. I much prefer the snap of the 16-20 grains of 2400 or 4759.
I do have some H4227 that I could try.

[JeffinNZ]

In my experience a longer, heavier bullet is better in the three oh three. Long throats you see.

[iron brigade]

hoping you're right Jeff. sure do like those Enfields:)

[iron brigade]

Happy to report that the NOE 316299 was just the ticket! both Enfield's played the game.
the smelly loves 16 grs of 2400 and the no. 4 likes 18 grs of sr4759. no key-holing and nice groups at 50 yards. the first two shots were in 1/2" with both rifles. 3 more shots opened the groups to about 1.5 inches for 5 shots per gun.

NOE moulds are top quality and easy to work with. wish I could say the same about Lee mould handles:(


forgot to mention, I put the bullets in the oven for 1/2 hour at 350 for heat treatment.

[petroid]

Does heating without quenching help to harden boolits? I was operating under the assumption that heating and slow cooling would anneal but water dropping would harden...

[iron brigade]

not sure. I dropped them in to water out of the mould and then heat treated them. without a brinnell tester I am not sure they got any harder. all I know is I had two Enfields that wouldn't group and now they do. I shot some as cast and some I ran through a .314 sizer and could not find a difference in the accuracy.

[petroid]

I think the water dropping did more to harden them than the heat treating. If anything, the "heat treating" actually softened them a bit by allowing them to slow cool. But I guess it didn't do too much damage. I prefer the water dropped hardness and it sounds like your rifles do too. Congrats on finding some good loads!