303-270 Wildcat

[pritch1986]

Hello all this is my very first post and i appreciated all the .303 LE information that is on this site, However i went and purchased a rifle a few years back and haven't done much shooting with it this rifle is the 303-270 Lee Enfield Wildcat, the knowledge i have of this rifle thus far is as follows:
Mk3 No#1 SMLE
re chambered to a .277 (.270)
Made in Australia by Lithgow arms
Modified after WW2 to fire a .270 projectile
The reason for this change was a legal reason being that in NSW after the second world war .303 ammunition was made illegal by the NSW government of the time for one reason or another. (this is the understanding i have gotten after hours of net stumbling)
This prompted Lithgow arms to do was to re barrel a lot of Lee Enfeild Rifles to fire different caliber projectiles such as the .270/.250/.22 .

What i would like to know is if anybody has come into contact or know anything about these modified barrels.

Currently after searching far and wide i have managed to get some dies to resize regular .303 Brass (british) back to a 303/270 and am currently firing 110 gr projectiles with 33 gr of powder behind it to give me about 2700 FPS muzzle velocity, the reason i am only using 110 gr projectiles is because im not sure of the twist rate in my barrel and also the the SMLE action isn't very tolerable of high pressures and i don't want to have it go off in my face, there were however some old ammunition that came with the rifle that were reloads and the gas expansion port was used for when these particular rounds managed to split the shoulder of the brass and in some cases split around the base (which was great picking bits of brass and burnt powder out of my face and dealing with slight burns which was also fun).

I really want to get this rifle up and running because it is a piece of Australian history in itself and not much is known at all that i can tell about these wildcat variants.

If anyone knows even the smallest amount about these rifle's i would be very grateful to know

thanks for reading my post and look forward to hearing back

[3006guns]

I'd suggest going to the Gunboards website. They have a very active Enfield group from literally around the world. Just introduce yourself and ask. The guys from New Zealand and Australia probably have lots of info, including loads.

[Multigunner]

Hello all this is my very first post and i appreciated all the .303 LE information that is on this site, However i went and purchased a rifle a few years back and haven't done much shooting with it this rifle is the 303-270 Lee Enfield Wildcat, the knowledge i have of this rifle thus far is as follows:
Mk3 No#1 SMLE
re chambered to a .277 (.270)
Made in Australia by Lithgow arms
Modified after WW2 to fire a .270 projectile
The reason for this change was a legal reason being that in NSW after the second world war .303 ammunition was made illegal by the NSW government of the time for one reason or another. (this is the understanding i have gotten after hours of net stumbling)
This prompted Lithgow arms to do was to re barrel a lot of Lee Enfeild Rifles to fire different caliber projectiles such as the .270/.250/.22 .

What i would like to know is if anybody has come into contact or know anything about these modified barrels.

Currently after searching far and wide i have managed to get some dies to resize regular .303 Brass (british) back to a 303/270 and am currently firing 110 gr projectiles with 33 gr of powder behind it to give me about 2700 FPS muzzle velocity, the reason i am only using 110 gr projectiles is because im not sure of the twist rate in my barrel and also the the SMLE action isn't very tolerable of high pressures and i don't want to have it go off in my face, there were however some old ammunition that came with the rifle that were reloads and the gas expansion port was used for when these particular rounds managed to split the shoulder of the brass and in some cases split around the base (which was great picking bits of brass and burnt powder out of my face and dealing with slight burns which was also fun).

I really want to get this rifle up and running because it is a piece of Australian history in itself and not much is known at all that i can tell about these wildcat variants.

If anyone knows even the smallest amount about these rifle's i would be very grateful to know

thanks for reading my post and look forward to hearing back

The various wildcat cartridges based on the .303 case were popular for hunting before restrictions on the .303 and other military calibers became an issue. restrictions gave new impetus to the market for such modified enfields.
At one point a shortened .303 cartridge was available in France and in Australia, Enfield military rifles could be modified for this shortened cartridge by setting the barrel back one full thread and using a cleanup reamer if necessary. The French version was called the .303 sporting, and the cartridge is generally identified as the 7.7X54R.
Besides altered Enfields a few straightpull versions of the FAL were built in 7.7X54R.
This cartridge allowed 303 balistics for match shooting while the rifle itself could not chamber the standard .303 cartridge.

Besides the .270/303 other popular wildcats were the .257 and 6.5 on the .303 case. The smaller bore cartridges were popular as game and varmint rounds, offering a flatter trajectory and light recoil.

[bruce drake]

Stand by here as well. We have a large contingent of Aussies and Kiwis here that post regularly as well.

Looking forward to seeing more posts from you in the future!

Bruce

[HORNET]

Some of the Canadian crew might be helpful as well. Elwood Epps wildcatted the .303 case to LOTS of different calibers.

[Multigunner]

One reason for smaller bore wildcats on the .303 case could be that the Australians didn't adopt the higher velocity MkVII cartridge till long after the British made it standard. So civilian shooters would probably have only had access to the lower velocity 215 or heavier bullet loads before WW2.

The .303 with taylored handloads of 150 gr or lighter bullets can be very versatile, but if limited to heavier bullets its trajectory would not be optimal for longer range shots on smaller game animals. and varmints.

After WW2 surplus and seized Japanese ammo was a souce for salvaged components, and Japanese 6.5 barrels could be adapted to the lithgow receivers. The type 38 and 44 rifles used a 14 TPI thread with a slightly larger shank, fairly easy to recut to Enfield whitworth thread specs with minimal lathe work.

Sleeving of cut off shanks of worn out Enfield barrels was another method, one still practiced for less intense chamberings.
A experiment on using similar constructed .303 barrels had proven a failure, but for less powerful chamberings it seems to work okay.

The Enfield has long been used with various sub caliber inserts for both the .22 rimfire and slightly larger caliber rook rifle type cartridges.

Some .22 centerfire conversions were made by major manufacturers.

PS
I'd scrap those suspect hand loads.

[PAT303]

Mate the 303/270 isn't a wildcat in Oz,the reason why they were made was because it was illegal to have military calibres in Aust so the 303 case was shortened to make it a 7.7x54 or rebarrelled to one of the many smaller rounds that used the full length case or with the 22/303 they had about 3 or 4 that used shorter cases or different shoulder angles etc.Neck down new 303 cases first in an 8mm die then in a 270 FLS die till they chamber with a crush fit and load with 10grns of shotgun powder and they will form out perfectly. Pat

[pritch1986]

to all that have posted on this string everything has been very useful :D
the status of this rifle now is that i have been able to find some 303/270 dies to reneck and full resize regular 303 British 54R brass (Winchester make) to the right shape the great thing about it is noone really makes this ammo so i had to start from scratch with a trusted friend who has been reloading for years, we fire form the brass using the first round out the barrel and that isn't hurting anything and have managed to acheive a 1 MOA accuracy with a standard deviation of 16 fps on the chronograph which is outstanding for a rifle action made back in 1941 in NSW Australia. The old rounds that were severely overloaded that blew up in my face are kept as reminders never to ever ever use rounds that have been loaded by any old bozo i show my friends from time to time just so they know to be wary of this point :D Thankyou to everybody on the site and if anyone has any further questions feel free to post me :)

[herbert buckland]

The 303-270 was desined so a standard 303 case could just be run through a die and be ready to go ,i have seen 303 cartriges have the boolit puled and resized with the original cordite still in ,bulls seated and that was it,tens of thousands of this amo was sold in Australia