Enfield and 314299 bullet question

[rayg]

I have three Enfields. Two "T" snipers and one BSA 1916. All have good bores with one of the snipers being close to mint. All have five groove barrels.
My 314299 drops out of the mold about .302-303 nose and .313-314 lands. However when I insert these bullets in the muzzles of all three Enfields they drop down all the way to the lands of the bullet. Which means the bullet nose is too cast too small. Now I figured that this can not produce any accuracy when there is no bore ride.
So I beagled the mold to get a larger dia nose, .305-6 in order to get a bore ride and I do get good accuracy with 10 grs of Unique at 100yrds with the beagled bullet.

I have not tried non beagled bullets as It figured my mould was just casting the bullets too small so I didn't even try them as regular cast. However I read posts were folks get good accuracy with this bullet in their Enfields and wonder if their bullets cast larger then mine or their rifles bores are smaller dia.

Can some folks that shoot this bullet in their Enfields that get good accuracy see if the bullet nose is smaller then your bore dia like mine? Do they drop down the muzzles like mine with no bore ride. Ray

[longbow]

Mine when new cast smaller than yours. About the same at the nose 0.303" but 0.312 on the body. I was not getting good accuracy in:

- one barrel 0.303" bore and 0.314" groove
- another at 0.305" bore and 0.314" groove

so lapped the mould to get 0.305" nose and 0.315" body.

There may have been other factors at work too but accuracy is much improved with the larger boolit. Being undersize in the groove was probably more of an issue than the undersize bore ride nose.

Longbow

[Shiloh]

That Boolit works great in a Krag, and have seen the same issues with nose riding in an Enfield.
The nose is just a bit undersized. WHat did you lap with??

Shiloh

[longbow]

I use valve lapping compound. I do not see a grit size listed on it. Just "Valve Lapping Compound".

I cast at least 2 good pairs of boolits (double cavity)

- chuck the boolits in my lathe and drill the base
- cut the head of a wood screw and run it in
- file a small flat on the side of the boolit
- smear valve lapping compound on the flat
- close the mould on the lap (loosely in a vice)
- use an electric drill to slowly turn the lap
- when it gets a little loose, tighten the vice a bit and lap until the lap is loose when the vice is snug
- take the mould out of the vice and clean up the faces so the mould will fully close
- put the lap back in a turn until it is loose
- clean the mould faces again and repeat until the lap is loose
- sometimes here I will use one of the other full size boolits to replace the worn lap and turn until it is loose
- clean the mould and cast a few boolits, if the right size you are done, if not, use the new boolits from the larger larger cavity as laps and repeat lapping until it is the right size
- repeat with the other cavity starting with the first as cast boolits
- I usually finish off both cavities with the same lap by swapping back and forth between mould face cleanings

Some people prefer to cast with a nut over the open cavity then use a wrench to turn the lap by hand. It is slower but safer.

If you are taking out more than a thou or two there seems to be a tendency for the moulds to go oval ~ a little larger at the seams. Not sure if it is the grit cutting a little more at the seams or the fact that it is hard to get the mould faces clean and closing all the way.

Going slowly and cleaning often should help minimize that.

Aluminum, brass and bronze moulds respond much quicker than iron moulds so go very slowly with those.

As for grit size, I would start with fine if I had it then go coarser as the lap wore then finish with fine again. Mine does not give a grit size but it is fairly fine and leaves a nice finish.

Longbow

[Shiloh]

Thanks!!

Great How-To explanation!!

Shiloh

[PAT303]

With the boolit a .303-.304 nose should be right on the money as all LE's were bored .303,it was the one and only thing that was correct over all the LE models.Later on first the chambers then the grooves were opened up,on the No.4's the grooves can be up to .317 from the factory and the chambers were all set up with generous headspace for reliable loading,I have never found a standard factory set-up one that didn't need to go to the next no. up bolt head,my No.4 went up two with non mil cases.I load for about 10 LE's with others coming and going and all of them shoot very well with with my Lyman 311299 that drops the boolit at .304-.314 out of WW and a stick of tin over 28-30 grns of AR2206H,sold as Hodgden 4895 in the states with a tuff of dacron.I would open the mold a thou or two as bore riding boolits do not shoot if they aren't bore riding. Pat

[rayg]

Pat, my two no.4 snipers need at least . 304-5 to engage the bore. By beagling the mould I bring the nose up to that and it seems to give me good accuracy.
I don't want to open up the mould as I also use that bullet for my 30 cal rifles and it works well in them as is. Ray