Enfield Project

Mauserfan in TX · December 26, 2007, 11:53:58 AM

I am getting yet another old Enfield for a re-do project. The action is in good shape, make and modle?, Basically i am going to do a clean up and re-barrell. I just have'nt made up my mind as to the chambering. Not going to be .303, but maybe a .454 casull. Any sugggestions?

Brithunter · December 26, 2007, 01:00:00 PM

Well without knowing what you have, how can anyone really help with suggestions?

You really need to know what you have before you can go further. For one thing the threads differ from the earlier marks to the No4 and No5's.

sakorick · December 26, 2007, 02:12:43 PM

Hello M Fan. What are you going to use the rifle for? Regards, Rick.

Mauserfan in TX · December 27, 2007, 04:44:58 PM

Hello guys, I believe it a #4 Enfield Kevin. It is in real good shape, except for the wore out barrell. It has been drilled, tapped and based for a scope. I realize that pressure is an issue , so whatever i convert it to will be in the .303 pressure range. The fellow that owned it previosly wanted it converted to 30.06, and when my friend told him that it would'nt be safe to do so, he just told him to keep it. I was planning to make it a 30.30 Win. or a 44 Rem Mag, or possibly a .454 Casull.
Hello Rick, I would primarily use it in the thick woods around my place. Hogs being at the top of the hit list. May use a low power scope, or go back to irons, as i already have a Williams 5D peep for it. Barrell would be in the 18'' range. What do y'all think?

sakorick · December 27, 2007, 04:59:49 PM

Quote from: Mauserfan in TX;70723Hello guys, I believe it a #4 Enfield Kevin. It is in real good shape, except for the wore out barrell. It has been drilled, tapped and based for a scope. I realize that pressure is an issue , so whatever i convert it to will be in the .303 pressure range. The fellow that owned it previosly wanted it converted to 30.06, and when my friend told him that it would'nt be safe to do so, he just told him to keep it. I was planning to make it a 30.30 Win. or a 44 Rem Mag, or possibly a .454 Casull.
Hello Rick, I would primarily use it in the thick woods around my place. Hogs being at the top of the hit list. May use a low power scope, or go back to irons, as i already have a Williams 5D peep for it. Barrell would be in the 18'' range. What do y'all think?

Why not just make it a 303 Enfield with hard sights and be done with it? There are as new Enfield barrels around. If it's going to be a hog rifle then you need not go further IMHO. Regards, Rick.

Paul Hoskins · December 27, 2007, 05:38:11 PM

Mauserfan, If you want a thumper for hogs etc. you might want to consider the 444 Marlin case. The rim is considerably smaller than the 303 rim but the same general size as the 454. If the 454 will extract, then there is no reason the 444 Marlin wouldn't work. I wouldn't think it would be too difficult for this rebarreling job. Cast bullets would be fine for hogs too. .........Paul H

Brithunter · December 28, 2007, 01:29:45 AM

Hi All,

In a No4 action in good condition conversions up to the pressure of 7.62x51 Nato are safe as proven by the thousands of rifles converted (safely) to the Nato cartridge. We will discount those ruined by idiots who overload said cartridge trying to keep,bullets supersonic at 1200 yards and as a result of their stupidity managed to get the use of converted rifles banned in New Zealand

. Wildcatters have done similar things but normally realise they are at fault not the action which was designed specifacally for ONE cartridge.

There is a gunsmith here in the UK who makes conversions, new bolt heads and barrels to take 5.56 Nato.

Now a cartridge which would seem to have potential in an Le Enfield is the .375 Winchester :smiley: good for jacketed or cast bullets. I don't have the dimensions to hand but I seem to think it would fit. Converting the action is not difficult getting the magazine to feed is more likely to be the hard part :frown .

kombi1976 · December 28, 2007, 01:58:18 AM

A popular conversion for Enfields is 45-70.
Plenty of scope for low power or high power loads, cast or jacketted and even smokeless and BP loads.
375 Win, 454 Casull and 444 Marlin all operate at higher pressures than is really great for an Enfield.
The best thing with 45-70 is that you can use 458 Win Mag bullets in it because it doesn't have to use FPs.

gitano · December 28, 2007, 10:55:05 AM

The 7.62 NATO's CIP (European) max safe chamber pressure is 55,144 PSI. I agree with BH that the safety of using this cartridge in this action has been demonstrated thousands of times.

That said, the .444 Marlin's max safe chamber pressure is 51,488 PSI.

The .454 Casull's max safe chamber pressure is 56,565 PSI.

The .375 Win's max safe chamber pressure is 63,817 PSI.

And my suggestion for consideration...

The .500 S&W's max safe chamber pressure is 61,931 PSI.

It MUST be kept in mind that the above values are for the cartridge fired from the action for which it was designed.

However, there's no law that says a cartridge HAS to be loaded to it's rated max pressure. Jeez!

The .45-70 is as good a choice as any in my opinion. All the others are good choices too. How involved you want to get in this process is probably the most significant factor for consideration. The more 'esoteric' the chosen cartridge, the more 'fiddling' you'll hafta do before and after the rifle is ready to use.

Paul

mozark · December 28, 2007, 01:02:39 PM

IMHO the ideal cartridge in which to rebarrel a No. 4 is the 405 Win.

348 Win is good too.

With either, same head and case diameter as the 303, and chamber pressures well within tolerance.

MM

gitano · December 28, 2007, 01:05:17 PM

Excellent suggestions, Mozark.

Paul

Mauserfan in TX · December 30, 2007, 02:19:49 PM

Thanx for the input gang, I had'nt considered the .405 Win. I was thinking of the .454 Casull , as a mate to my revolver (handgun-carbine combo). Can't keep it .303, that would be to easy. 444 Marlin would be sweet, as i don't have one......yet.I do like the 45-70, that is what most of the lever crowd down here shoots. So naturally i gotta be me and not run with the crowd. The re-barrelling will be pretty straightforeword, the trick will be to tweek the mag to feed right, as was pointed out already. .454, 45-70, 444,375,405, 500,decisions decisions, This is going to be fun:biggthumpup: . If i keep this up my wife is going to kill me.

LvrLover · January 10, 2008, 08:06:46 PM

In my book its hard to beat a .308, but a .358 would be good too. If you want to get crazy what is the pressure running on the 338 federal?

Paul Hoskins · January 11, 2008, 06:28:42 PM

Mozark, I couldn't disagree with you more on your choice for the Enfield. The cost for cases in 405 are much higher than the 444 Marlin and the bigger bullet diameter would have more knockdown power if heavy loads were used. Also there is no comparison between the head diameter and rim diameter of the 348 Win. case and the 303 British. The 348 head diameter is over .100 thousandths bigger than the British case. The 405 case would have to be shortened considerably to work in the Enfield action whereas the Marlin case is a standard 57 case...............Paul H

gitano · January 12, 2008, 09:50:10 AM

Nominal case dimensions:

303 British - Head - .451", Rim = .525"
348 Win.... - Head - .553", Rim = .610"
444 Marlin - Head - .470", Rim = .514"

When I'm considering a wildcat, case availability is a relatively small consideration for me. If I can get it, or make it, that's good enough. If I can't get it (without it being custom-made by somebody else), or I can't reasonably form it from another case, then I choose another cartridge. But not 'til then.

As for actions, seems to me that the one I have in my hand is THE one I'm gonna use whether it's the "best" one or not. Personally, I'm not so keen on bolt action Enfields, and it's unlikely that I'd make a wildcat on one because it's unlikely that I'd ever have a bolt Enfield action 'in hand' to toy with. However, if someone gave me an action, I'd certainly consider 'wildcatting' it instead of returning it to a .303 British chambering. Wildcats have never been about "practical" for me.

Paul