Lee Enfield Ishy 7.62

[cheese1566]

Brought home an Ishapor 7.62 2A Lee Enfield today. It it is stamped 1965 and has the MKIII 303 2000meter rear sight. Overall it is grimy, but the wood is in great condition as is the metal; except the black enamel is flaking and chipping off. Haven't scrubbed the bore yet to see how that is.
Struck a deal for a C-note and the owner said I can pay when I scrape the money together over the next few weeks.

168621686316864

A matching serial number is stamped on various parts including the receiver, bolt handle, rear sight, magazine; was this done by the factory in India-or the importer? There is an electric pencil engraving of "W. Hurley, NY" on the left side of the receiver in small lettering.

Is it a real collector? I was planning on "scrubbing" and Tung Oil treatment to the wood like I did my Garand and then refinishing the metal with either parkerizing and\or GunKote. I plan on shooting cast through her.

[docone31]

Is it a real collector??
Nah, but it is a great shooting rifle.
You can boil off the cosmoline, Easy Off the original oil finish, and refinish. They come out nicely. Sometimes the wood is not matched, but Numerich has #1MKIII wood that fits nicely.
With the three point bedding job on the forend, and a rear reciever sight, the Lyman #1MkIII Enfield reciever sight fits well, it is a tack driver. My wife loves hers. She can offhand walk a bowling pin up the berm at 100yds with it.
They enameled the metal as the finish is not so hot. The ones from Hurley NY however are parkerized rather than enameled over bare metal. The square 12rd clip can also be made into a 5 rd clip, or a 5rd clip can be gotten from Numerich.
All in all, those rifles are the find of a lifetime. The two stage trigger can be replaced with an Huber trigger. I haven't, but it is easy enough.
I bet it becomes your favourite also.

[Bloodman14]

I bought one a few years ago; soaked the parts in mineral spirits for a week. Everything came clean. Take some fine steel wool to the wood, in a circular motion, not too much pressure ( just smooth it out). Serial number is factory; engraving is importer.
FWIW, my Enfield went through a half box of factory ammo, and then back to the pawn shop for an LE in .303! The .308 chambered gun kicked the **** out of me! Had a bruised shoulder (PURPLE!) for a month. If you can abide the metal buttplate pounding your shoulder, go for it.
As a collector, I don't know.

[docone31]

I forgot to add,
I put on a Field Pad. It is a triple pad for shotguns. Worked GREAT!.
With cast loads in the rifle, it is a sweetie. Go .310 for the sizeing, .309 for paper patching.
It likes paper patched loads.

[cheese1566]

I didn't think I had a SafeQueen, but wanted to make sure before I tore her down. Like my Garand stock, I plan on lighty "scrubbing" her with lacquer thinner and/or Formby's Refinisher. Then into my shop oven on low heat to weep out the Cosmo, grease, and oils. Then steaming out the dents, being careful to stay away from the proof stamps, and a nice rub down of Formby's Tung Oil.

For the metal a nice soaking in lacquer thinner, a trip to the blast cabinet and then some zinc parkerizing to go under some GunKote.

I read up on surplusrifle.com to keep the load pressure down and stay away from factory loads.;-)

[Nora]

You won't find much demand for them in the high end collectors market. When the were first imported they got an unjustified bad reputation as being week and dangerous rifle to shoot. It was in fact a new production rifle made with good quality steel and heat treated to with stand the chamber pressure of the 7.62x51mm. They are as a hole a good sturdy and reliable bolt gun that can be quite accurate for a service rifle.

I've had good luck cleaning them up in the bath tub with Murphy's oil soap and very hot water. Let the stock dry, then stick it in the oven (If your wife is not home) at 180* with the door open a crack to draw any remaining junk out of the pores. Then one more trip in the tub.

Nora

[docone31]

You are going to like how she looks! With fresh parkerizing, it will be nice to look at.
Easy Off, sodium hydroxiline will not hurt wood.
The reciever sight is a real plus. The reciever is not hardened so it is simple to drill and tap.
I have not had an issue firing factory .308 loads in ours. We have two. We have fired perhaps 200 factory rounds, 1500 milsurp rds through them. Then on to the paper patching. Once the bore is paper conditioned, the lead and copper is out of the bore, the patterns are suprisingly small.
You will have to bed the foreend. The barrel will act like spaghetti while you fire it. The barrel will get so hot the cosmoline will pour out of it.
You will see what I mean when you fire it. Fire off 20, and touch the rear sight.

[Jack Stanley]

When they first hit the market , I bought five of them at fifty-nine bucks each . My thought was that I'd clean and shoot them all and keep the best ones . None of them shot like I wanted them to with surplus ammo and since I had better cast bullet rifles I let them all go . The new owners were not as picky and were very happy with them .

Jack

[corvette8n]

I had one but traded it off recently, mine came with a warning tag from the importer (Century Arms) not to shoot factory .308 but only use 7.62 NATO.
I read an article maybe on surplusrifles.com about using the reduced recoil factory ammo, that was ok according to the author. I only shot mine with some 7.62 NATO surplus I got from my local dealer. It might have been strong enough to shoot .308 factory but I didn't trust it.

[dromia]

Fine shooting rifle and an important if unsung part of the Enfield history, and what a cracking story that is.

Treasure it, shoot it and hold onto itas the Enfield collector snobs will get round to them some day and their value will rise.

[m.chalmers]

A nice stop loss rifle made for the Indo-China wars. India didn't have enough FAL's. Every Enfield collection needs one. Don't park it! It would be painted by a blind man.
Enfield sites:
http://forums.gunboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55
http://www.milsurps.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72
http://www.303british.com/id37.html
The man that wrote the current Enfield bible:
http://www.skennerton.com/

Enfield's are very addictive. An they breed in the safe!

[cheese1566]

If I don't parkerize it, what about painting it?.. I read on some of those forums of using high heat engine\header paint, BBQ paint, duracoat.

I can see from the 50% od the paint off the bolt and receiver that there is no finish underneath.

[milsurp mike]

I redone one with high temp paint and it turned out beautiful.Mike

[dualsport]

My Ishy has the ugly black paint too. I'm still deciding whether or not to mess with it, as there is original and not original issues I'm deciding on. I've picked up a Williams receiver sight for it but am still reluctant to drill it. If I do then 'original' is out the window and then I'll do whatever to it. I have a clamp on scope mount that won't stay put, working on that. Also got a black plastic stock, helps with length of pull and scope use(higher comb) but is interfering somehow with the safety. With it on safe the sucker drops to half cock when the trigger is pulled, a little scary. I got it for about $100 a couple years ago at the coolest gunstore I've ever seen. I think the name was Huntington's, it's in Oroville, Ca., right next door to RCBS. A big great old time gun store/museum. My Ishy shoots old cheap de-linked British MG ammo into 3-4" at 100 yds with issue sights, can't wait to see what else it will do, especially with cast bullets. I have a ton of milsurp brass, some of it LC Match, for what it's worth. Sounds good anyway. If you're ever near Oroville you gotta see this place, it's worth a special trip, and maybe then go fishing at Lake Oroville, it's great.

[docone31]

Ok, that black paint comes off with Easy Off, the original finish is parkerized.
The Williams sight is a great fit. The reciever is not hardened so it does drill fast. A scope mount can be made from 1" Angle iron. The left side of the reciever has the eject screw. The mount goes there.
From experience, those are the best firing rifle I have had in my hands short of a custom rifle. The wood cleans up, the trigger is easy to get used to. The foreend beds nicely, and with paper patched loads, it functions nicely. The barrel is the same outside as the #1MKIII. It is slightly thicker than the .303 British. Bedded down, a real tack driver.
The magazine can be shortened to five rounds easily.
All in all, worth it.

[cheese1566]

The great debate! Paint or Parkerize!!

I keep hearing (here and on other forums) that it is parked underneath, but mine looks to me like it isn't.
I am thinking that if some were, I won't be too out of line in parking it. I found these pics on another sight and like what they did in their refurbishing:
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I would like more of a charcoal to black parkerizing.

I suppose some would cringe in the refurbish and reworking of my CMP Garand.

I looked at the Williams sight, but am "ishy" on drilling into the receiver. No turning back on that. I guess if a Williams sight came to me cheap, I would consider it. I view all my gun buys an investment--many years from now going up in price--but nothing to pay for the kids' college.

[docone31]

The sight goes directly in front of the bolt handle. It plops down, and with the sight down to the other side, it is self leveling. Then mark and drill the holes. The threads are 6/48. Goes real quickly.
If it is bare metal, it does cold blue real well. Lots of blueing makes it almost black.
As far as I am able to tell, the only difference aside from caliber, is the rear buttstock. It is angled for the recoil of the 7.62 vs .303. That doesn't matter to me. I square the buttstock, put on a field pad. Sand to fit, and refinish.
A good handling, easy firing, rifle. Somewhere on the net is how to make a scope mount from angle iron. My puter is in the shop so my favourites are there. It is simple. In the second picture, you can see the flat rail just above the stock. That is where the mount goes. It rests on the charger bar. It takes three allen bolts, tapped into the reciever, four holes for scope mounts on top. When I made mine, I relieved most of the metal around the reciever. I left enough to mount the scope. Since I am too old for "combat" I suspect my rifle will always be coddled.
With a shortened clip, scope mount, or reciever sights, it is a good firing rifle.

[dualsport]

Well, no one is claiming sacrilege on modifying the Ishy, I'm way overdue for a Bubba project! I am doing my part to preserve some fine examples of milsurp craftsmanship. I appreciate the fact Doc is impressed with these, that's encouraging. I had the feeling mine wanted to shoot. I think I'll go ahead with the Williams, it might make a good candidate for modified iron postal military postal matches. Love to see that angle iron scope mount. Oh, I'll try the Easy Off too. My tap and die set is Chinese, I think from Midway. This soft steel wiil be a good place to try 'em out.

[docone31]

The tap and dies are from Midway, not standard taps and dies. The finer threads work better with the thin walls of the reciever.
I tried to find the scope mount. It is gone.
Basically, it goes parallel with the left side of the reciever, resting on the steel ledge. The extractor screw is cut out, and the rear is modified for the safety. With the one I made, I inletted the steel so I could use the safety. Kinda went to the rear of the reciever with the steel, and looped back under the safety, I then curled forward. A weaver mount fits on the top. It works well.
Your chinese taps won't work unless you change out the mounting screws that come with it.
I can assure you though, that reciever sight works well. With just the threads of the aperature, it makes a good hunting sight.
It fires flat, and I mean flat!
A good rifle.

[MtGun44]

Mine appeared to have had the barreled action dipped into a vat of locomotive
paint! Hideous black goop filled the sight apertures, glued the sight leaf, etc.

IMHO I would not use Easy Off on wood - the severe harsh caustic chemical nature
has to be doing some harm to the wood fibers.

Bill

[docone31]

Nope. Easy Off is neutral to wood. Hard to believe, but it is all I use on stocks and cosmoline.
Here is a link to the scope mount.
http://www.303british.com/id32.html
I knew I had it somewhere.
It really is a simple and effective mount. Very little tapping, polishes up real well to be blued, or parkerized. The weaver mount fits right on the top.
Does not fall out like the no drill mount.

[dominicfortune00]

[QUOTE=dualsport;712523] the coolest gunstore I've ever seen. I think the name was Huntington's, it's in Oroville, Ca., right next door to RCBS. A big great old time gun store/museum. QUOTE]

You're right!

Huntingdon's 'the store' is the factory outlet for RCBS in Oroville.

They do have a lot of neat stuff in there!

[dualsport]

Thanks for the link Doc. I'll try it. My Ishy is the only .308 I own. I'm picturing me winning some $ in cb postals! (Make that 7.62 Nato I mean. If modern .308 Win. ammo is ok in these I haven't heard about it.)

[docone31]

Were it me, I would get some once fired MilSurp brass, cast some Lee 180gn .30cal loads.
That rifle really shines with paper patched loads also. Higher POA than jacketeds.