Any Enfield Owners?

Kurtz

Kurtz

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I picked up a No4 Mk1 and I'm curious what ammo flies the best out of them. I'm shopping around and have seen 150-180 grain soft points but I'm having trouble finding some surplus .303. I got the rifle from xxxxx and it has a nice bright bore with deep rifling.
 
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Kurtz said:
I picked up a No4 Mk1 and I'm curious what ammo flies the best out of them. I'm shopping around and have seen 150-180 grain soft points but I'm having trouble finding some surplus .303. I got the rifle from xxxxx and it has a nice bright bore with deep rifling.
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I would say it depends on the rifle. I have only shot surplus though any Enfields I have owned and they all shot great with that. Surplus seems dried up right now, your best bet for accuracy is to reload and build up a load for your gun. With the exception of a Swedish Mauser, I do not expect any thing better than 3-5 inch groups from a milsurp.

What make Enfield did you get? What year was it made? Photos would be cool.
 
The Remington soft point thats out there produces the best groups in all of my Enfields but its pricey. If you can match what they use for components and reload, you'll be able to save a lot of money and enjoy the hell out of your rifle.
 
i have been shooting S&B 180 grs fmj out of my no.1 mkIII with good results I picked up a bunch at a gun show last year for $15 a box but I am now on my last box so i just bought up a set of dies today and I hope to start reloading this weekend if i find some 303 bullets at the concord gun show
 
NinerMaine said:
I would say it depends on the rifle. I have only shot surplus though any Enfields I have owned and they all shot great with that. Surplus seems dried up right now, your best bet for accuracy is to reload and build up a load for your gun. With the exception of a Swedish Mauser, I do not expect any thing better than 3-5 inch groups from a milsurp.

What make Enfield did you get? What year was it made? Photos would be cool.
Click to expand...

It says Georgia VT on it, serial MK417369 and I haven't attempted to trace it yet. As far as groups at 100 yards my Swiss K31 gets 2" groups pretty regularly.
 
Savage No4 Mk1, never used anything but surplus. Never really tested it for accuracy, but its minute-of-milk jug at 100 yards.
 
I don't expect anything stellar out of it, I just want to try to get the best ammo for it the first time around. I'll give PRZI Partizan a try then try to find some surplus.
 
Kurtz said:
It says Georgia VT on it, serial MK417369 and I haven't attempted to trace it yet.
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Georgia, VT is the importer. It most likely says CAI as well, that would be for Century Arms International, Georgia, Vermont. The MK serial #, if a dot matrix, is most likely the one put on by CAI which means it is a recent import. The Enfield N0. 4 is marked in two places. The first is the left side of the receiver wall near the safety. The second place would be on the left of the wrist socket, which is the strip of metal between the fore end and the butt stock. The original serial number with a date, will be on the wrist socket. There may also be a maker mark. The model notation will be on the left receiver wall and maybe also the maker depending on who made the rifle and when it was made. ROF (F) Royal Ordinance Factory in Fazerkly used an electro pencil to marked their rifles and they did so fairly lightly. If it is an ROF, the marks may be very light and hard to see. Since you did not notice it, my guess it is an ROF (F).
 
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55_grain said:
Not to hijack the thread, but I agree: Swiss 96/11, 1911, K31, etc, are right up there with the Swedish 6.5's for accuracy.
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The Swede's made their rifles to be accurate for 1 inch groups at 100 yards. The Brits did not make their enfields that accurate. The rifle was deemed acceptable with 5 inch groups at 100 yards. The British were in two many wars and lost too much equipment to want to spend the money making a rifle more accurate than it needed to be for standard battlefield situations. The Swedes expected to be holding on to their rifles for a long time and so made them very accurate. You will really have to alter a No. 4 to get it to shoot like a Swede.
 
I've got over a dozen Enfields, and each has her personal preference for ammo.

Generally speaking, you'll never do better than '70s HXP or '80s PMP, although '40s Radway Green, if properly stored, comes close.

S&B does as well as any commercial load, and is generally cheaper. For the most part, fine-tuning any surplus Enfield involves rolling your own, with bullets ranging from .309 to .315, from long heavy lead moving slow, to short and fast. I've made up good loads ranging from "cat sneeze" 123 gr FMJ, to shoulder thumper 210 gr LRN.

Best bet: just buy some ammo, and adjust yourself and the rifle. Once you find what works, stick with it.
 
NinerMaine said:
The Swede's made their rifles to be accurate for 1 inch groups at 100 yards. The Brits did not make their enfields that accurate. The rifle was deemed acceptable with 5 inch groups at 100 yards. The British were in two many wars and lost too much equipment to want to spend the money making a rifle more accurate than it needed to be for standard battlefield situations.
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Or as the old saying goes, "The Germans brought a hunting rifle, the Americans brought a target rifle, and the Brits brought a battle rifle to the war."
 
lupis42 said:
You know there's a flip up smaller peep, right?
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depends on the gun. in 1943 savage put a flip sight like the type 1 m1 carbines on their mk1 no4 for 300 and 600 meter settings (have a 1942 with savage mark micrometer sight, and a 1943 with a flip sight). Not positive, but think others did as well. think it was unit level, soldiers replaced the flip sight, and went back to the old micrometer sight.
 
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So glad I bought my Enfield that was chambered in 7.62 . They had a short run few years back that was made for the India military in the 60's 70's. Love how rugged that rifle is.
 
KBCraig said:
Generally speaking, you'll never do better than '70s HXP or '80s PMP, although '40s Radway Green, if properly stored, comes close.
QUOTE]

Phew, good to hear as I was able to secure several hundred rounds of PMP surplus a while ago.

As to "large peep sight" - try out a Parker Hale 5C sight.........when you can find one which
doesn't cost more than the rifle.
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There is a supplier out there that has military surplus in marked boxes with the same head stamp and is NOT de belted machine gun ammo. Its not a bad price either and out of my Enfields it does very well at 100, even better at 200.

I have also shot some reloads but 303 is tricky.Once fired you have to re size the brass. For some reason the Enfields stretch the heck out of the cases. Q Ammo did reload for it for a short time and it was by far the best I ever used but you would need to check with him and see if he is still reloading it. He had the same issue with the brass. Check his web site or give him a call.
 
50 BMG said:
I have also shot some reloads but 303 is tricky.Once fired you have to re size the brass. For some reason the Enfields stretch the heck out of the cases.
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Enfields stretch brass because they headspace on the rim, not the shoulder, and the chambers are sized "generously".

If you full-length resize your cases, even the best brass will only last 3-4 loads before splitting the neck. If you neck-size only, it will last almost as long as .30-06 brass. You might have to use a FL die to bump the shoulder back a bit every 3-5 reloadings, but don't resize the whole case.

Obviously you have to keep your brass sorted for each individual rifle when doing this, since chambers vary.
 
KBCraig said:
Enfields stretch brass because they headspace on the rim, not the shoulder, and the chambers are sized "generously".

If you full-length resize your cases, even the best brass will only last 3-4 loads before splitting the neck. If you neck-size only, it will last almost as long as .30-06 brass. You might have to use a FL die to bump the shoulder back a bit every 3-5 reloadings, but don't resize the whole case.

Obviously you have to keep your brass sorted for each individual rifle when doing this, since chambers vary.
Click to expand...

+1. My .303 brass gets considerably stretched out, both radially and axially. Plenty of space in that chamber for dirt, mud, maybe a spare pair of socks...
 
I have a No1 MkIII* SMLE, SSA peddle scheme.

Cheapest factory ammo I've found is $16/20 Prvi Partizan. I've been saving up my brass though for when I start to reload. I did ask Qmmo if he reloaded it but he doesn't.
 

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