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Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield (Read 4623 times)

vigillinus Ex Member	Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Dec 18^th, 2005 at 4:41pm	Print Post
	Have just discovered somewhat to my surprise that a Lee Enfield .303 barrel screws right into a Field Patent sidelever SS action, apparently only needs an extractor cut. Would this be true for the various standard size Farquharsons, Woodward Patent, Westley Richards, etc., as well?


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waterman Frequent Elocutionist Offline Posts: 2889 Location: Behind the Redwood Curtain Joined: Jun 9^th, 2004	Re: Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Reply #1 - Dec 18^th, 2005 at 9:47pm	Print Post
	Mr. V, I do not know about other Brit SS, but I put a new Lee-Enfield barrel (for a No. 1 Mk. III) on an old BSA Martini action. It did indeed screw right into place and needed only an extractor cut to get the rifle shooting. The Brits made literally millions of Lee Enfield barrels. There are good ones and bad ones and probably many hundreds of thousands that are somewhere in between. Examine the future SS barrel carefully. Mine was a real .311, but has the long chamber frequently reported. Even a moderate load pushes the shoulder 0.06" ahead of the factory standard. I've scrapped 2 sets of .303 Brit. dies this past summer. Then I got an RCBS neck die and a Hornady seating die for the 7.7 Jap. I re&de with a Lyman 310 in .30-40. That cobbled-up die set has made all the difference between a rifle that was destined to become trading stock and one I really like to shoot. Richard


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wesg Senior Forum Member Offline Posts: 322 Joined: Sep 13^th, 2004	Re: Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Reply #2 - Dec 19^th, 2005 at 2:32am	Print Post
	The deep chamber of the .303 is normal. It's there for sand and mud clearance. No problem at all to deal with. Just set your sizing die out so it barely touches the shoulder of a fired case. If you size them all the way back you'll get head separations in a couple firings. I've tried expanding new brass to .338 and necking back down in an attempt to reduce stretching at the base. Doesn't seem to make any difference.


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DonH Ex Member	Re: Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Reply #3 - Dec 19^th, 2005 at 6:07am	Print Post
	wesg; Try leaving a very short portion of the neck at the dia. for .338. In other words, size up, then when you size the neck back down for the .303 leave a short (1/16 or less) length of neck just ahead of the shoulder at the larger diameter. When the case is chambered this will give a crush fit preventing the case from moving forward upon firing, resulting in proper headspace on the case. You may have to experiment as you only want a slight crush fit. Admittedly, I have not tried this on the .303 in my Lee Enfield but is what it took to get things right in my .338-06. The separations result from the case moving upon striker fall then the head being driven back under pressure.


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JDSteele Ex Member	Re: Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Reply #4 - Dec 19^th, 2005 at 11:46am	Print Post
	Have found, when dealing with a long chamber, that it sometimes helps to seat the fire-forming bullets nose-forward, jammed hard up into the lands, with the load reduced slightly to compensate. This, along with the increased neck-shoulder diameter mentioned above, has solved all my headspace issues with one firing. Then simply leave the sizer die backed out as described. Good luck, Joe


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vigillinus Ex Member	Re: Barrel shanks, Brit SS rifles @ Lee Enfield Reply #5 - Dec 19^th, 2005 at 12:20pm	Print Post
	Well, I started this thread with a .303 barrel, it was a mid 20th Century in the white Parker Hale match barrel a little heavier than a military barrel, but yesterday I swapped it out for something even more intriguing, a .405 WCF Lee Enfield barrel, 26" in the white, the same barrel shank. And with the .303 I sold the Field sidelever action. So now I have a .405 barrel and nothing to put it on. A Farquharson action is hard to come by and scary expensive but the idea of a Martini .405 has a certain charm, espcially one of the actions with a sidelever safety catch.


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