US Property Lee enfield No4

[garbear]

I just picked up a Lee enfield NO4 savage made rifle. I am not at home right now but will be home tomorrow. I'll clean the rifle and slug my bore. Then start working up a load. I will decide on a mold and i may even atempt to pp this one.
Garbear

[303Guy]

Looking forward to more news on this one. No.4's are great rifles. I'm convinced that any condition bore can be made to shoot with paper patched. If the bore is a little rough have a look at my thread on fire-lapping. The great thing about paper patching for the Lee Enfield is there is no need to size the necks. I got good results from smooth sided cast boolits some time back but that was in a mint bore rifle. Also no neck sizing but then I was feeding it single shot.

[garbear]

I ordered lee dies that have a full lenght die and neck sizing die. I am reloading for my enfield and my 16 yr old brother inlaws no4. He inherited is granfathers sporterized enfield. I still need to slug his bore but so far he has had decent acruacy with sierria bullets at .311. I don't remember the grain of th jword bullets for his have to check my notes.
Garbear

[Four Fingers of Death]

I'm negotiating to swap a SMLE which was a target rifle and has a heavy barrel in excelllent condition which has been shortened to 22" and has a scope mounted for a sporterised No4. My friend is using it but not having much luck with the two aperature peep sight. I have an old Singer sight down stairs. I would love to convert it to a 303Epps, something I have always wanted to do.

I have a beautiful US Property marked No4 in military trim, but it is in excellent condition and too good to modify.

[garbear]

I have cleaned the rifle. Here is what i have seen so far the bolt matches my reciever. The mag doesn't. I have a 2 groove barrel. The rifle is a NO4 MK1*. The hand gurds are different from each other and the stock. I am not worried about that. The finish is a grey park but the cocking peice is black so probaly from different rifle. The muzzle looks good and the passed my bullet test. The bore looks bright and shiney. I'll slug my bore to see where to start with my handloads.
I am going to take her out today and shoot her with the ammo I picked up. I have 1964 POF. I have never shot this ammo so wondring if I ahould have grab more then one box.

I cleaned by using #0000 steel wool and wipe down with a cotton rag dampend with minreal spirits. I mixed 1/2 minreal spririt and BLO. wiped on then wiped off with a clean rag. I'll be wipeing down with BLO for the next few weeks and then finish with toms 1/3 gun wax.

I am still searchng for when it ws made and have not found that yet. Any direction for that search would be apreciated.

Garbear

I'll get some good pics once wifes battery charges on her camera.

[4570guy]

Are you sure it is park'd? When newly manufactured by Savage, the metal parts were simply painted.

[303Guy]

The two two-grooves I have both gave a simple taper throat which also forms the leade. The 'rust textured' bore one shoots Highland 180gr .310 bullets scary accurate. The bore is .304 and the groove is .318. With two-grooves one ignores the groove diameter with j-words. With cast - well, I don't know. I think the fattest boolit that will seat an unsized case mouth and chamber is indicated but's possible that a smaller casting would be fine with a fibrous filler that forms a wad.

[Four Fingers of Death]

[QUOTE=Four Fingers of Death;1583764]I'm negotiating to swap a SMLE which was a target rifle and has a heavy barrel in excelllent condition which has been shortened to 22" and has a scope mounted for a sporterised No4. My friend is using it but not having much luck with the two aperature peep sight. I have an old Singer sight down stairs. I would love to convert it to a 303Epps, something I have always wanted to do.QUOTE]

UPDATE;

I forgot to mention this one has a 2-groove Bbl and I have always fancied checking one of these out thoroughly.

The big advantage with the Savage/US made No.4s I feel is that they were made under ideal conditions (well away from the factories that were getting the **** bombed out of them with workers who could get a night's sleep without scrambling down to a bomb shelter and camping on the railway platform for a few hours while the ground shook around them. More likely to be in spec.

[garbear]

I am sure it is parkerized. I shot the rifle today. I have a number 2 bolt head on the rifle. the cases look a little stretched at the case head, but I am not sure. I'll take some pics of that also. I'll try and get them up tonight.
Garbear

[curator]

Garbear,

POF ammo is corrosive primed. Be sure to wash out the bore with water after shooting. Don't even wait overnight. Wash out the bore, dry it with clean patches and oil it lightly.

More info about shooting cast in the Lee Enfield:
http://www.303british.com/id37.html

[garbear]

I know about corrisive ammo. I wash with boiling hot water run patches until dry which with the hot water is like 1 patch. I then clean normally thne leave light coat of oil.
Garbear

[Multigunner]

Paint was applied over a parkerized or blued finish.
Sometimes paint was applied to a rifle that had very little original finish left.
At one time they intended to paint all rifles that came in for servicing, but many never got the paint unless issued in a tropical environment.

The best of the Savage manufacture rifles may well be the best of any No.4 rifles, but despite lack of bombing etc the pressure to get the product out did affect the quality at times, and the manufacturing shortcuts of the Mk1* design could give problems down the road when wear set in.

Two groove bores can be very accurate, but are more sensitive to bullet selection.
I've gotten consistent sub MOA grouping with 150 gr Hornady .312 J word bullets with a stout chargeof IMR4320.

Small parts such as a cocking piece might be blued rather than parked.

IIRC Savage parked by cooking in a chemical bath, then blued over the parkerising to get a matt black finish.

[Dead Dog Jack]

I am still searchng for when it ws made and have not found that yet. Any direction for that search would be appreciated.

Stevens Savage made No. 4 rifles in the Mk 1* trim were manufactured from 1942 until the end of the war. My books are at home right now, so I'll have to look up the final date later. What serial number do you have?

[Four Fingers of Death]

[QUOTE=Multigunner;1587144]Two groove bores can be very accurate, but are more sensitive to bullet selection.
I've gotten consistent sub MOA grouping with 150 gr Hornady .312 J word bullets with a stout chargeof IMR4320.

QUOTE]

I've spoken to a lot of old timers that used 2 groove 303 Bbls when they used to use standard as - issued rifles. They only shot milsup ammo and said that the two groove barrels could hold their own with the normal Bbls, but when they passed the point of no return wear wise, they went sour real quick, whereas the normal Bbls slowly deteriorated. I've heard that from a number of sources.

It is funny, old milsup rifles often don't cost much, but we tend to lavish as much care on them as our expensive sporting rifles

[PAT303]

I have a '43 Maltby 2 groove and it shoots as good as my H barrel Mk111,funny thing about it is the Mk111 5 groove likes bore riders yet the Maltby 2 groove likes loverin style. Pat

[garbear]

Here is a pic she is beautiful. My serial number is. 99C8###. bolt matches reciever mag doesn't.

Garbear

[Four Fingers of Death]

My US Property marked No4 303



No4 Converted to 7.62 by Lithgow Small Arms Factory (35 miles down th ehighway from here!).

I paid big money for these two, but they are lifetime rifles, so I will appreciate them long after the cost is forgotten..

The No4s have a certain magic about them.

[garbear]

Those are some beautiful rifles.
Garbear

[303Guy]

Ooh yes. Those are indeed beautiful. The No4 is a fine rifle and does have a certain magic.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Thanks, I paid about the same for these a as a pair of new Remington 700SPS rifles would have cost, but these were only for sale as a pair and were in superb condition. They had loaded ammo, notes and brass in the deal as well. The 7.62 conversion had only fired 200 shots after having the grease and paper removed. It had the battle peep ground off and a target sight plate fitted to the side for an Aussie Central Sight.

I might move on the 7.62, but the 303 will be with me until I'm too old to shoot.