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I'm deer hunting this year with a guy who is using a sporterized Enfield. While I know next to nothing about Enfields, I know one when I see one. He is shooting .308 ammo through it and I was wondering if it could have possibly been rechambered for .308? I told him it should probably shoot .303, but he says "nope, it's a .308" There are no markings on it for caliber. Would a .303 gun take .308 ammo without modifications? Any opinion on if it's safe?
Thanks for any input on this one.
Maybe it's actually a .308 DCRA factory conversion? Are there any marks on the receiver that look like "maple leafs" with a number?
Regards,
Doug
I went and got it out of the truck, he left it with me for the night. No maple leafs. The receiver looks like it was painted black, not blued and some of the numbers and letters aren't very clear, but the only thing on the receiver is (N?)AC RDGFLD (A3?) .308 (xxxx?) The stuff in parentheses is unreadable. Maybe it is a .308? I never looked at it that close before.
Sounds like a sportered 2A1. What does it say on the butt socket under the bolt knob?
The importer of your firearm was Navy Arms ("N.A."), Ridgefield, NJ
Found this on another forum "My Jungle carbine is a 308 stamped 7.62mm 2A1 RFI 1968. The barrel is marked N.A.;RDGFLD ;NJ
The stock is marked SA with an arrow in the middle."
It sounds like a spoerterized 2A1, the DCRA rifles were converted No.4s and much more elegant and beautiful. A DCRA will have a 3 or 4 digit serial stamped on the receiver numbered up to about 2500. I have two of them and they are very accurate. There were other conversions also Charnwood and sterling and of course there were teh L8 conversion by the british army but none of them every seemed to appear onto the civilian market. They are probably still in stores somewhere in an old warehouse in dorset or something. LOVE to stumble on that warehouse.
The 2A1, which is likely what your friend's rifle started off as, was built in India while they were re-engineering the FN-FAL rifle for Indian producton.
Thre weren't really a whole great bunch of them made and we rarely see them on this side of the border; they nearly all ended up in the USA, where the bulk of them were converted into budget-priced sporters. They WILL handle factory 308 ammunition, but that is about the limit of the action insofar as strength is concerned. If you are handloading for one, it is best to drop the load about 10%; this will bring the pressure down by almost 20%, putting it into the 'sane' region as far as these rifles are concered. After all, the ARE built on a 1910 modification of an 1888 action.
These can be very accurate rifles and the barrels are Enfield-rifled, so they last half of forever. The rifling is identical to the vaunted '5R' rifling except that it turns to the left rather than to the right.
If one of these rifles loses all semblance of accuracy suddenly, it is likely that the problem is The Damned Crack. You will find The Damned Crack at the rear end of the fore-end, right where the trigger comes up through the woodwork. Fix that (clean with Brake-Kleen, then epoxy and clamp for 24 hours, then put it back together) and accuracy is restored. Apart from that, these are likely the most reliable and trouble-free bolt rifle ever built anywhere.
Have fun!
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Thanks for the great info! He says it shoots pretty good, but with him, I was afraid he might be shooting something that would blow up on him. He's not the brightest bulb on the porch and I wouldn't be surprised to see him carrying some unsafe gun and thinking nothing about it. Thanks again for the information.