Thanks for your answers
Excellent article! Thanks!
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When checking the wood fit on my 1942 Long Branch a few items were noted. Had the forend on and nothing was even remotely making contact with the draws. The back end of the forestock where it touches the front
of the butt socket us not in complete contact.And since the forestock has shown some minor cracking that too will have to be bedded as well. everything along side the action body and the Nocks form will be getting some bedding as well. Many yraes back I had a #5 jungle carbine that was so loose that you could grip the butt stock and forestock and litterally move then in different directions at the same time. Had an almost full Acraglass Gel kit in that one. None of the commercially manufactured ammo here in the U.S. shot well in the jungle carbine. Only remington's 180 grain loading shot acceptable. Greek HXP' South African and the PPU do tend to shoot better than the U.S. stuff. What would be a perfect marriage in heaven would to know the interior dimensions and the exact od of the bullets regardless of the barrels interior dimensions.But that ain't gonna happen except the cast bullet shooters because they are literally fitting their bullets to the barrells interior dimensions.Frank
When bedding the "right arm of the free world", dont forget to bed the trigger guard and ensure the "king bushing" has no play, side to side and up and down. I have had more success with center bedding the barrel or free float. Flat base j-thingys fly best in 303.
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Another plus 1 for the .303 and LE with cast boolits and handloads.
One of these days I need to get some dies,brass, and boolits to try out my endfields. I would like to see how My long branch shoots after I lightened the trigger to approx 3 lbs, did a four day soak to remove all the copper out of the barrel, and acraglassed the shortened forend to float my barrel.
Thanks for posting this.
I have a #4 Mk1/2 that with 180 S&B FMJ will shoot an inch or better at 100 yards. With any other load, it is horrible. I have worked long and hard to duplicate the performance of that load in that rifle. I am sure it is an issue with vibration of that specific load. When I had a supply of that ammo, I was able to rain on the parade of more than a few shooters at 200 yard vintage matches. "An Enfield - Is'nt that cute" was frequently heard at the start of the matches with just some mumbling at the end. I have just been experimenting with cast bullets in a #4 Mk1 210 grain as cast at .314 with 12 grains of Unique. It is shooting about an inch at 50 yards on the backyard range in sub zero temps. Looking forward to giving it a workout at range this spring. Cold on the fingers but fun. Thanks for this great thread - lots of good information!
I've mentioned before that I have a 1902 MLE with a No4 barrel fitted that shoots 1 1/4" ten shot groups all day long. I did however, let the barrel cool between shots. It has a sporter butt stock and a heavy fore-end that I made. The action is fully bedded as is the trigger assembly and knox form. Barrel is free floated.
I don't know how many shots that is but I would normally shoot five shots. That by the way is only 25m, so not quite bench rest league. Just not too shabby for cast boolits.
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I'm not Jeff. Something that might help. I had a Mk III .303, I bought a Lyman 311413 G/C mold, and found when I loaded it with the recommend
Unique load and tested it out, the bullet key-holed about 25 yards. Then I came crossed an article that suggested using about 24 grains of 4895 powder. I tried it out and it stabilize the bullet so well I could take partridges with it.
I later picked up a Pattern 1914 .303 rifle manufactured by Winchester, that would throw bullets all over the target, bullets which I had loaded for my other Pattern 1914 manufacture by Eddy Stone that shot find. With the Winchester rifle I eventually cast a PB . 321 caliber bullet which I resized to .314 and shot at velocities under 1500 fps, which gave me a bullet that finally work not bad.
Sometime you have to play around with powder burning speed, sometimes it can be a combination of bullet velocity and bullet diameter
With a .316 bore you may need to go to .317 bullet diameter, or possibly push the bullet slower with a powder that has a medium burning rate.
Maybe the rifle got barrelled with a barrel intended for an Indian Mk III .308 interesting, that said the chamber must have be bored to take the .303 cartridge. They suggest groove diameter for .303 were known to range between
.309 and .317. Curious have you notice any indication of pressure problems shooting jacket ammunition. Probably not as there would be plenty of space in the chamber throat to accommodate the case neck expansions with manufacture ammunition.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |