That is really cool, thanks for the pics! That chest is awesome. How practical are those scopes for actual use? I know the quality of older glass sometimes leaves something to be desired, and the No4 has pretty excellent iron sights to start with, so I'm curious how they compare.

very well for the time,

the scope was designed for the Bren, which is why it is so heavy,

optics are fine, however the Windage and Elevation, so I shipped it off to a guy in Canada to go thru it for me, he should get it this week,


meanwhile, I have another like new No 32 Mk III that I will put on it for a range trip in the near future,

So I know refinishing an antique is kind of a no-no when it comes to value, but I buy them to shoot and that blotchy finish on the No4 was just so ugly I could barely stand to look at it when I got it out of the range bag...so I spent a lot of hours with some rust blue and boiling water and I'm pretty happy with the result.

You get pretty familiar with each part when you detail strip and refinish everything by hand, and it also served to get every last piece of crud out of the action. It's a tedious but rewarding process. A lot of markings that were previously invisible under the blotchy baked on paint finish are now clear, and I'm much happier with the overall look of the gun.

That's a lot of parts for a bolt-action...











I also picked up a reproductiopn sling from Sarco (suprisingly nice quality, but VERY stiff), and a bayonet because it was really cheap and it's .303 Brit...eventually it's going to rimlock or hang-fire, so it's good to have a stabby option to fall back on!

Down, up, down, up, down

And you’ll never have rimlock

quote:

never have rimlock

You sir, severely underestimate my ability to muck things up ! I always load my clips that way and still manage to get them to jam occasionally. I don't know if it's my ridiculously tight clips or just my inability to smoothly press them into the magazine, but I have a knack for locking up enfields.

The fix is pretty simple: .30-06. Or 6.5 Swede. Or 7.5x55 Swiss. Pretty much anything without that accursed rim! I still have a soft spot for Enfields, but I'll always contend they'd have been better in a rimless cartridge.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
I still have a soft spot for Enfields, but I'll always contend they'd have been better in a rimless cartridge.

The Brits actually intended to change over to a rimless round in the 1910s, with the rimless .276 Enfield being designed starting in 1910 and entering troop trials in 1913. This was the original chambering of the P13 Enfield rifle, which became the later P14 Enfield rifle and was also converted into .30-06 to become the M1917.

But further development of the .276 round and a changeover from .303 was abandoned with the start of WW1 in 1914, since it's a bad idea to try to develop and change to a new service caliber while heading into a major conflict. (As later evidenced by both the Japanese and Italians in WW2.)

Then further development of a new caliber after WW1 wasn't deemed a priority either, since .303 had proved adequate in the war, and they had so much excess .303 remaining. So they stuck with the rimmed .303 cartridge through WW2 and into the 1950s when they adopted 7.62 NATO.


If you want an Enfield in a rimless caliber, there's always the Indian 2A and 2A1 quasi-SMLE rifles in 7.62 NATO.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:

quote:

Originally posted by 357fuzz:

How is the supposedly rubbery type butt pad?

Like a hockey puck !

Honestly, even with the 180gr factory ammo, I didn't think it was that bad. But then again, I shoot an 03A3 a lot.

I slugged the barrel today, and I'm kind of confused. The lands measure to .309 and the grooves right at .311. I expected it to be a lot looser. I talked to a buddy at the range today who is an experienced cast bullet reloader, and he suggested that my Unique load may not be producing enough velocity to stabilize them (they're right at 1200FPS over the chronograph)...he suggested I bump it up a bit so I loaded up a few rounds with 4227 and 4198 (should give me about 1500 and 1800 respectively), but haven't been able to get out and shoot them yet. What are your thoughts on that?

I did load some jacketed 150s up to around factory pressures and they shot fine.

Enfields of this era really like flat-base bullets.

quote:

Enfields of this era really like flat-base bullets.

Thanks, good to know. Next time I see some I'll pick them up. Unfortunately, .311 projectiles are pretty hard to come by locally and I'm pretty much stuck grabbing whatever I can get when they have anything at all...which is rare. The cast bullets I'm playing with are flat-based and gas checked.