Paper Patching for my 1896 Lee Enfield

[303Guy]

I've had this rifle for a while now and never taking it out. It has a large bore, slightly tight in the middle. Rifling is sharp and deep but is 'rust textured'. Well, a patched Lee 180gr .311 goes down the bore without signs of leading. The captured boolit flattens well even though the alloy is quite tough but no sign of patch fragments so I don't know what is happening there.

Bore dimensions are;
.307/.319

Powder and charge is;
H4227 22gr with Dacron positioner.

The rifle has been re-barreled with an SMLE barrel, hence the over sized bore. This gun will only see mild pressures as it bears on one lug only (the outer one). It's a nice light weight gun with a lightweight sporter stock and that slim barrel. I've fitted an original Lee Enfield sight to keep it light.

[barrabruce]

Whats the nose diameter on the bullet.
Ohh yeah got it 11 thou paper.
velocity? accuracy??
Base looks strange to me like its been melted.

[303Guy]

Yeah, the base does look melted in the photo. But that's just residual wax - the patched boolit was soaked in molten waxy-lube. The boolit is right in front of me and I had a look. It still looks crystalline and plucked. Notice the semi-circular cavity just below the base? It wasn't there to start with. I would have wondered why that shot went wild.

Nose Ø .302 naked. Patched Ø .311
Base Ø .312 naked. Patched Ø .322

No range tests yet. The velocity may be around 1700 fps. The expansion of that tough alloy is impressive. I thought it was too hard but I guess I won't be softening it.

What I did with that boolit was to soak in molten waxy-lube with the idea of hardening the paper so as to give support in the bore. Interestingly, there is visible rifling impression on the nose shank. A slower boolit with some preserved nose shank shows it better. It's a fairly hard paper to start with.

On a negative note, it appears that the barrel will have to be shortened due to muzzle trumpeting. I'm going to make a measuring piece to see just how far back the trumpeting goes. I still plan to range test it like it is. I really like that long slim barrel. It gives the gun a beautiful balance with it's super light stock.

[gunwonk]

On a negative note, it appears that the barrel will have to be shortened due to muzzle trumpeting.

Counterbore.

[303Guy]

Counterbore.

That's a good idea!

I wonder how counter-boring affects paper patching? One way to find out.