Multigunner
02-07-2010, 11:46 PM
Here are some shortcuts to free downloads of publications from the late 19th and early 20th century which have excellent information on the development of the Lee Enfield Rifles and the .303 British cartridge.
First
"Rifles and Ammunition and Rifle Shooting" 1915 by Ormundsen and Robinson
This book printed early in WW1 pulls no punches in giving details of criticisms of Britian's military rifle of the day and it ammunition, and gives honest comparsions to the other military rifles in use during the early days of WW1.
http://books.google.com/books?id=kd_NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Rifles+and+ammunition+and+rifle+shooting&source=bl&ots=tYF8rCumog&sig=eoNT-gxpIxe-Cdc5pJZDX1pR4Hg&hl=en&ei=UnhvS5zYHY60tges7o3_BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA
Next
"Sniping in France" 1920 by Vernon Hesketh Pritchard, the man most noted for the advancement of battlefield sniping and scouting as an art.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.archive.org%2Fdetails%2Fsnipi nginfrancew00pricrich&ei=j3lvS7TZFsWUtgfC7LmSBg&usg=AFQjCNFQitpiCih3mAl4b2WX2s9UPWDPwg
"The Gun and its Development" by William Wellington Greener 1910 edition
http://books.google.com/books?id=vIffAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+gun+and+its+development&source=bl&ots=x3JkkNj8oI&sig=In4D122rO24Lq3GvifSpPQFG0qg&hl=en&ei=OHpvS_HnE8i0tgfP0cn8BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAg
"The Book of the Rifle" by Thomas Francis Freemantle (Lord Cottesloe)
http://books.google.com/books?id=eHQCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+book+of+the+rifle&source=bl&ots=sMk5pZRjTg&sig=IKwdsHeHuhdMzthWrlc3xHUzwGY&hl=en&ei=s3pvS9z8Eo2wtgfjvsmKBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAw
These books deal with much more than the Enfield rifles and .303 ammunition, so they give a better overall picture than specialised books aimed at the collector, books of the latter sort spend too much time on telling the collector what he wants to hear rather than giving facts.
I like the Enfields, own several and spent quite a bit of time restoring and shooting these and numerous others, so I've seen both the good and the bad.
I've noted a disturbing tendency by some Enfield collectors to urge people new to shooting to ignore basic safety concerns and safety warnings posted by the National Rifle Associations of the US, Australia, and Great Britian.
Some myths about the Enfield can result in dangerous situations for the shooter.
No high powered rifle can safely fire ammunition that is muddy or when mud is in the chamber, not the SMLE or any other rifle.
Instructions on cleaning ammunition, clips, and magazines in the Regulations for Musketry make it plain that many rifles were redendered unservicable by mud getting into the chamber.
Even a very wet cartridge, from firing in rain, can cause the action body of the SMLE to crack. This happened even on rifle ranges, so it most likely was a problem in combat, since battles unlike baseball games were seldom called on account of rain.
Gas erosion, especially of a bore already oversized by modern standards can result in bullet jacket separation in the bore, while this was most commonly noted when tublar open base and open nosed jackets were used with some early .303 loads , it can also occur with Full metal jacket bullets if the extent of gas washing due to blowby is high. In at least one instance gas erosion coupled with a rough bore resulted in blow through of a closed base open point bullet, the shooter being killed by a fragment of shattered bolthead and extractor.
While tests run on stuck jackets and stuck bullets under controled conditions indicate that a barrel will usually snap off or blow out before the action failed, the over sized chambers of military .303 rifles coupled with damage to the chamber from wire gauze pull throughs and other rough field cleaning methods , along with generous headspace can result in case blowouts and shattered boltheads.
Most who visit this board are interested in preserving older rifles of all types by working up safe accurate loads using cast bullets at reasonable velocities at fairly low pressure levels.
While an Enfield rifle in good to very good condition can handle any modern .303 load that meets SAAMI specifications, there are loadings of the .303 that were not intended for use in the infantry rifle at all, and during wartime it was prohibited to use such ammo except in emergency situations when no other ammo was available.
After each World War millions of rounds of defective or compromised ammunition were dumped in the North Sea. Some of the ammo scheduled for destruction was sold to scrap dealers, some of this ended up back on the surplus market.
During the Afghan/Soviet dustup millions of rounds of blackmarket and counterfiet .303 ammo ended up on the market.
In recent years production quality of military spec ammunition has ranged from excellent to absymal, and apparently some deliberately sabotaged .303 ammo has shown up on the market, left over from counter insurgency operations in Africa.
Taking all this into account, my own take on this is that if you own a .303 rifle its best to limit your shooting to ammunition of proven quality, or better yet assemble handloads taylored to your individual rifle.
Due to the British government's insistence on continuing to use Cordite propellant, for decades after more suitable propellants became available, despite the loss of capital ships, with thousands of crewmen, the disasterous explosions at Cordite factories and ammunition factories, shorter usable bore life and lowered level of accuracy, excessive muzzle flash that gave away a gunner's position and required night fighter pilots to use retractable lenses in gunsights to avoid being blinded by the flash from their own guns, and many other drawbacks, the Enfield rifles are very different in some ways from other bolt action rifles of the period. The most notable is the extra deep grooves and oversized and often inconsistent bore diameter.
This can pose difficulties in matching up bullet to bore and often a load must depend on bumping up of the bullet to fill the grooves.
Its very satisfying to get one of these old warhorses to shoot well, but it can be very vexing at times.
I'll add a few more links later on, I suggest you download and save these works for future reference.
First
"Rifles and Ammunition and Rifle Shooting" 1915 by Ormundsen and Robinson
This book printed early in WW1 pulls no punches in giving details of criticisms of Britian's military rifle of the day and it ammunition, and gives honest comparsions to the other military rifles in use during the early days of WW1.
http://books.google.com/books?id=kd_NAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Rifles+and+ammunition+and+rifle+shooting&source=bl&ots=tYF8rCumog&sig=eoNT-gxpIxe-Cdc5pJZDX1pR4Hg&hl=en&ei=UnhvS5zYHY60tges7o3_BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAoQ6AEwAA
Next
"Sniping in France" 1920 by Vernon Hesketh Pritchard, the man most noted for the advancement of battlefield sniping and scouting as an art.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.archive.org%2Fdetails%2Fsnipi nginfrancew00pricrich&ei=j3lvS7TZFsWUtgfC7LmSBg&usg=AFQjCNFQitpiCih3mAl4b2WX2s9UPWDPwg
"The Gun and its Development" by William Wellington Greener 1910 edition
http://books.google.com/books?id=vIffAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+gun+and+its+development&source=bl&ots=x3JkkNj8oI&sig=In4D122rO24Lq3GvifSpPQFG0qg&hl=en&ei=OHpvS_HnE8i0tgfP0cn8BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBYQ6AEwAg
"The Book of the Rifle" by Thomas Francis Freemantle (Lord Cottesloe)
http://books.google.com/books?id=eHQCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+book+of+the+rifle&source=bl&ots=sMk5pZRjTg&sig=IKwdsHeHuhdMzthWrlc3xHUzwGY&hl=en&ei=s3pvS9z8Eo2wtgfjvsmKBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBwQ6AEwAw
These books deal with much more than the Enfield rifles and .303 ammunition, so they give a better overall picture than specialised books aimed at the collector, books of the latter sort spend too much time on telling the collector what he wants to hear rather than giving facts.
I like the Enfields, own several and spent quite a bit of time restoring and shooting these and numerous others, so I've seen both the good and the bad.
I've noted a disturbing tendency by some Enfield collectors to urge people new to shooting to ignore basic safety concerns and safety warnings posted by the National Rifle Associations of the US, Australia, and Great Britian.
Some myths about the Enfield can result in dangerous situations for the shooter.
No high powered rifle can safely fire ammunition that is muddy or when mud is in the chamber, not the SMLE or any other rifle.
Instructions on cleaning ammunition, clips, and magazines in the Regulations for Musketry make it plain that many rifles were redendered unservicable by mud getting into the chamber.
Even a very wet cartridge, from firing in rain, can cause the action body of the SMLE to crack. This happened even on rifle ranges, so it most likely was a problem in combat, since battles unlike baseball games were seldom called on account of rain.
Gas erosion, especially of a bore already oversized by modern standards can result in bullet jacket separation in the bore, while this was most commonly noted when tublar open base and open nosed jackets were used with some early .303 loads , it can also occur with Full metal jacket bullets if the extent of gas washing due to blowby is high. In at least one instance gas erosion coupled with a rough bore resulted in blow through of a closed base open point bullet, the shooter being killed by a fragment of shattered bolthead and extractor.
While tests run on stuck jackets and stuck bullets under controled conditions indicate that a barrel will usually snap off or blow out before the action failed, the over sized chambers of military .303 rifles coupled with damage to the chamber from wire gauze pull throughs and other rough field cleaning methods , along with generous headspace can result in case blowouts and shattered boltheads.
Most who visit this board are interested in preserving older rifles of all types by working up safe accurate loads using cast bullets at reasonable velocities at fairly low pressure levels.
While an Enfield rifle in good to very good condition can handle any modern .303 load that meets SAAMI specifications, there are loadings of the .303 that were not intended for use in the infantry rifle at all, and during wartime it was prohibited to use such ammo except in emergency situations when no other ammo was available.
After each World War millions of rounds of defective or compromised ammunition were dumped in the North Sea. Some of the ammo scheduled for destruction was sold to scrap dealers, some of this ended up back on the surplus market.
During the Afghan/Soviet dustup millions of rounds of blackmarket and counterfiet .303 ammo ended up on the market.
In recent years production quality of military spec ammunition has ranged from excellent to absymal, and apparently some deliberately sabotaged .303 ammo has shown up on the market, left over from counter insurgency operations in Africa.
Taking all this into account, my own take on this is that if you own a .303 rifle its best to limit your shooting to ammunition of proven quality, or better yet assemble handloads taylored to your individual rifle.
Due to the British government's insistence on continuing to use Cordite propellant, for decades after more suitable propellants became available, despite the loss of capital ships, with thousands of crewmen, the disasterous explosions at Cordite factories and ammunition factories, shorter usable bore life and lowered level of accuracy, excessive muzzle flash that gave away a gunner's position and required night fighter pilots to use retractable lenses in gunsights to avoid being blinded by the flash from their own guns, and many other drawbacks, the Enfield rifles are very different in some ways from other bolt action rifles of the period. The most notable is the extra deep grooves and oversized and often inconsistent bore diameter.
This can pose difficulties in matching up bullet to bore and often a load must depend on bumping up of the bullet to fill the grooves.
Its very satisfying to get one of these old warhorses to shoot well, but it can be very vexing at times.
I'll add a few more links later on, I suggest you download and save these works for future reference.