Lee Enfield Mk1 No. 4

[Durandal]

Lee Enfield Mk1 No. 4 in original .303.

I purchased this last month...got a steal of a price for the quality. I took it out this past weekend, on Sunday and put about 40 rounds through it.

I love this gun...almost as enjoyable as a Springfield M1903.


http://homepage.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/.Pictures/Lee%20Enfield%20Mk1%20No.%204/1.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/.Pictures/Lee%20Enfield%20Mk1%20No.%204/3.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/.Pictures/Lee%20Enfield%20Mk1%20No.%204/4.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/thesw0rdofroland/.Pictures/Lee%20Enfield%20Mk1%20No.%204/5.jpg

I had video shot of first shot I fired out of the rifle here: http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=thesw0rdofroland&templatefn=FileSharing5.html&xmlfn=TKDocument.5.xml&sitefn=RootSite.xml&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

[Mark Sman]

Awesome, love the Enfield. I have a No.1 MkIII*. BSA manufatured in 1916 and FTR'd August of '44 in Australia.

The barrel was lightly pitted when I got it, but I had a master gunsmith replace it for just under $100 with a new barrel from South Africa.

Now the mirror bright and prefect barrel shoots inch and a half at 100 yards with surplus ammo. Of course thats fully supported.

Wandering through a gunshow I found a nearly perfect pattern '07 bayonet with a 1943 Mangrovite manufatur marking. Nice companion piece to the Enfield since it was FTR'd around the same time in Australia.

Tell us more 'bout your rifle.


http://pub113.ezboard.com/fparallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforumsfrm49

[DeltaWhisky58]

Durandal wrote:
Lee Enfield Mk1 No. 4 in original .303.

Sorry to be a pedant, but the rifle is an Enfield No.4 Mk.1

A lovely weapon, very accurate, but accuracy can be a bit "iffy" in the wet - don't ask me why, but it is a well known fact amongst Enfield shooters.

[Ian H]

How easy is it to get .303 ammunition? Since it was never used by the US military and has been out of British+Commonwealth service for a long time, there can't be much left, or is it made in the US?

[Durandal]

Just a quick post for right now...

.303 is not the easiest to get. Or maybe I should say, it is not the cheapest. Unfortunately, you cannot find it at, say, ****'s Sporting Goods...but most gun shops and ranges will have it in stock. A low end box of PMC will run you about 14.95 per 20.

I bought reloading dies for .303 when I bought the rifle. So when I have my reload station set up I plan on doing a fair amount of .303 and .308.

[oldsoak]

You can get 303 ammo, but its not as popular or as easy to come by as 308 etc . Reloading the brass is cheaper, but the cartridges dont seem to last as long before you have to bin them. A kiwi mate reloads using 7.62 Russian bullets on the 303 cartridge - 7.62 Russian being pretty close to 303 in diameter - uses them for plinking and as a good fallow deer round in the bush. He has a beautiful sporterised MKIII and a cut down and scoped No4. ( Incidentally he used the No4 to knock down a Thar at 800yds - as measured by a lieca rangefinder - using commercial out of the box ammo. Everyone said he had the wrong gun and bullet combo so he went out and shut them up. )

[Mark Sman]

Fortunately Canada used them. And althoughthe stocks of surplus Canadian military ammmo are long since used up, they continued making the .303 round for other countries.

Last we got was Surplus Canadian made stuff for a contract that wasn't filled. Awesome stuff, accurate and still in cloth bandoliers with 5 round stripper clips. So if you can't find any more of that, "Blame Canada, Blame Canada."

Lee-Enfields were actually made in the U.S. and Canada. Savage (Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts) and Long Branch (Ontario). Seriously though, hit some of the Enfield forums and you will find, in general, a helpful and kowledgeable community of shooters and historians.

Don't even mention sporterizing. That is something done to Turkish made Mausers and Chinese made Mosin Nagants.

http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stratton/en-page.html

[Geezah]

Just a quick post for right now...

.303 is not the easiest to get. Or maybe I should say, it is not the cheapest. Unfortunately, you cannot find it at, say, ****'s Sporting Goods...but most gun shops and ranges will have it in stock. A low end box of PMC will run you about 14.95 per 20.

I bought reloading dies for .303 when I bought the rifle. So when I have my reload station set up I plan on doing a fair amount of .303 and .308.

Check out Aim Surplus $5.95 for a box of 20 or Ammoman as they will be getting some in soon.
If you don;t mind me asking where did you get the Enfield and what did it run?

Many thanks

Sheldon

http://www.aimsurplus.com/acatalog/_303Brit.html

http://www.ammoman.com/webstore_303-BRIT.htm

[Durandal]

Check out Aim Surplus $5.95 for a box of 20 or Ammoman as they will be getting some in soon.

Have you had a good experience with these guys? The last time I bought ammo on line I got 7.7mm instead of .308. I normally wait to buy ammo twice a year...at Knob Creek, where I can get 1000 rounds of .308 for under 100.00 USD and 5.56 for 80.00. I never shopped .303 prices but I am assuming I can get a fairly good deal there.



If you don;t mind me asking where did you get the Enfield and what did it run?

PRO Gun Show that Tours Ohio. I think there is one at the end of the month...

I paid 85.00 USD for it.

[GazB]

They are a nice old rifle... I have a Mk-4* (the asterisk means it was made by the Savage corporation of the USA) and am currently minding a Mk-5 jungle carbine for a mate.


A kiwi mate reloads using 7.62 Russian bullets on the 303 cartridge - 7.62 Russian being pretty close to 303 in diameter - uses them for plinking and as a good fallow deer round in the bush.

Despite their designations they are both actually .311 calibre bullets... as is the 7.62 x 39mm AK bullet. I have heard of a chap that converted an old 303 into a 7.62 x 39mm rifle. The main reason was cost, as 303 is no longer widely used as a military round, while the 7.62 x 39 is cheap and available. Also within a few hundred metres the difference in performance is not that great in the medium bullet weights.

[martinexsquaddie]

lucky bastard
although you can own a rifle in the uk. its a major hassle and its not like theres a local rifle range :( anyway
learned to shoot with a no4 13yr old full bore rifle cartirdge =pain
grouped out to 800metres

[George W. Bush]

I pay .50 cents a round for .303BRIT

[marktigger]

I Learnt to shoot Fullbore with the No4 Mk1 with the ACF. As a Slightly built 13yo it was an experience to move backwards down the Firing point with the recoil.

[oldsoak]

Pity we never developed a .303 short round a la 7.92mm Kurz, - sounds like we'd could almost have adopted the Russian round without too much engineering . As an aside, why we never looked at the mp44 and copied it beats me.

[Sabre]

Beacause it's just not British!

Politics, as ever, played too big a role...of course then one wonders why we went for a Belgian weapon for nearly 40 years?!

There was an enfield weapon in development, the EM-2:

http://world.guns.ru/assault/em2.jpg

It would have fired the experimental 7x43mm cartridge.

http://world.guns.ru/assault/em1.jpg

http://world.guns.ru/assault/em2strip.jpg

http://world.guns.ru/assault/em2_280.jpg

from let to right: British experimental .280 (7x43mm) cartridge for EM-2; Soviet 7.62x39mm M43; US/NATO 5.56x45mm (.223 Rem); US/NATO 7.62x51mm (.308 Win)

http://world.guns.ru/assault/as59-e.htm

[Brandon]

Great looking rifle. Always fun to shoot, eh. I have a No. 1 MK III and a No. 5 JC. I love the JC, awesome little deer hunting rifle.

[Geezah]

Check out Aim Surplus $5.95 for a box of 20 or Ammoman as they will be getting some in soon.

Have you had a good experience with these guys? The last time I bought ammo on line I got 7.7mm instead of .308. I normally wait to buy ammo twice a year...at Knob Creek, where I can get 1000 rounds of .308 for under 100.00 USD and 5.56 for 80.00. I never shopped .303 prices but I am assuming I can get a fairly good deal there.



If you don;t mind me asking where did you get the Enfield and what did it run?

PRO Gun Show that Tours Ohio. I think there is one at the end of the month...

I paid 85.00 USD for it.

"AIM" rock, I buy my Russian surplus 7.62x39 700rnd cans from those guys and I just purchased a Bushy M4A3 on Boxing day, luckily they're just down the road from my work so I pay them visits while I'm at lunch :D

I've also purchased from Ammoman and those guys are pretty good, bought Federal EFMJ and 20 British 30rnd SA80/AR15 mags.
Ammoman ships everything out free so that can't be beat, the price you see is the price you pay.

$85 seems like a pretty fair deal on the Enfiled, and it looks pretty clean, good job.

Sheldon

FYI:Other companies I've had a good experience with, CDNN, Southern Ohio Guns and Tantal at http://tantal.kalashnikov.guns.ru/ he rocks and the service is first class, I purchased the Kobra from him :)

[littlefrench]

very nice gun, I've got the same by my grandparents. It belonged to the french members of the Resistance in the WW2.

[usmcsniper]

OK Guys: I know that sporterizing a No 4 MK1 is against all rules but I bought one 25 years ago for $25.00. The leather sling was worth more than that. Anyway I have a 3x9x32 TASCO scope on it. I use Federal 180 Grain SP bullets and have had excellent rewards during deer season up to 300 yards. The only harrassing I get is I shoot for the head. One they don't run and two it doesn't mess up the meat. I get my ammo from my local hardware store that sells ammo. $24.97 a Box ( Cheaper than Bass Pro Shops). At home the pawn shop sells both original factory loads and some foreign made for much less. Great for just target practice but I wouldn't use them for hunting (TOO SERIOUS) I guess. Any comments please send. Thanks/usmcsniper

[Wally1967]

Wow you brought back the 2004 thread from the dead.

btw welcome to MPnet.