My SMLE

[Ovidio]

Last Saturday I took the good old Smelly out again.
After a few rounds to adjust (started aiming at the bullseye, but the sight was for the bottom of it. Plus the worm-screw needed a little adjustment), we started doing great. All rounds in the bullseye were in a single string.
Until.......broken brass.
An almost new Hornady case just ruptured roughly one inch over the rim, leaving me deeply unsatisfied.
It took a week to get the thing out, since the gunsmith had to make a little extraction tool for the job.
No signs of overpressure, probably a faulty brass, with some material flaws.
But now the SMELLY is fit again, and I'm hoping to be able to take her out again next week-end.
I really love that rifle!

[Ovidio]

Again a broken brass.
This time close to the rim.
Inhave a 0 bolt head. Could it be that too much tolerance stresses the brass?
No overpessure at all.

[Mk VII]

Change to a different brand of brass, and/or buy a clearing plug.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

The muzzle looks OK.

There should be upwards pressure holding the muzzle firmly against the "corners" of the little window in the top of the hole for the barrel.

This spring pressure is provided by the spring and plunger that SHOULD be between the rear of the nowse-cap and the barrel.

Further back, there should be another screw along the bottom of the fore-end, near the sling swivel / outer band.

This screw, and another spring, which fit into the INNER band around the barrel, should be pulling the barrel downwards slightly.

All of that is to "tune' the barrel to Mk7 ball ammo.

Mk8 Privi Partizan or any other commercial ammo will require a different arrangement.

Further back, if the fore-end wood is not solidly held firm by the "angled" lower surfaces on the receiver / body, any corrections to the fitting at the muzzle end will not have much effect.

I recall that Italy produced a LOT of .303 ammo, just under a different name, before and after the last great unpleasantness. If you are reloading, see if you can find some of the FLAT based bullets from local 7.7 rimmed ammo, Load them in new cases with a relatively fast powder and see what happens.

There was a rumour, based on their own internet sites, that the Russians AND the Ukranians were producing .311", 174gn, flat-based FMJ bullets and even loading it in ammo, (7.62 x 54R) for export. You are a LOT closer to these sources than those of us in Australia.

Good luck and keep us posted with your progress.

[Ovidio]

Change to a different brand of brass, and/or buy a clearing plug.

I’m using Hornady brass. Should be very good.
In any case, I’ll certainly buy the plug.
Thanks

[nijalninja]

I know you asked the question a while ago here, but I might be able to give a heads up: If you are wanting windage adjustment from your backsights you could find a set of MKI/MKI* rear sights with windage and ivory inserts in the buttony things that you push in to move the slide to change height adjustments. However, I have a sportered MKIII* with a set of these sights, and though they look great and do a fine job they shoot about a foot high at 100 yards at the lowest setting, that is as far as the rear sights will go down, meaning that I unless I file down the slide or extend the front sights upwards it will keep shooting high with the ammo I use. Could be that being a sporter with no up pressures like SMLE's were supposed to have that it has thrown all that out of wack, but I believe it is mostly due to the rear sights being meant for a completely different pattern of enfield and ammunition. I would probably stay away from MKI/MKI* rear sights for your rifle, or at least research the differences before proceeding.

I may be wrong, but that is my experience. Best of luck.

[CINDERS]

Ovidio if your going to go with the windage sights which are out there go for a latter version mainly due to the fact of price the early ivory inserted ones will sting your wallet pretty hard you can search on fleabay usually there are some on the net in England but some one here in Milsurps may have a few lying around so may be able to assist you.
I was wondering a bit and may suggest you try shooting the rifle like we run in a new barrel and that is having at least 2 minutes between shots leaving the bolt open for airflow through the barrel keeping it relatively cool to see if it really is heating up that causes the dispersion, as firing 8-10 rounds quickly will heat the tube up pretty quickly just a thought. (No need to clean it between shots we are not running in the barrel)

With regards to the differences in the sights I was under the impression the graduations were the same but it was the ramp on the sight bed that was altered to allow for the flatter trajectory of the MkVII ammunition as a yard is a yard as marked on the sight ladder I could be wrong though.

[Richard Hare]

Ovidio,

If you have reloaded the Hornady brass a few times, it is very likely fatigue causing your cases to fail. The .303 is rather hard on cases, and we sometimes only get a few reloads before case separation.
There are ways to extend case life, such as only neck sizing or minimal case sizing, but these rifles will stretch the cases more than some other types. Maybe do a search on case separation.

To remove a stuck case, run another round into it, and then extract. It will usually pull out the remains. Or, a good screwdriver with a blade wide enough to grip the walls of the failed case;
Push it into the case, twist, and the case usually comes out. For this it makes sense to sharpen the sides of the blade very squarely, so they bight into the case walls.
I have had a good few cases fail over the years, and the screwdriver or another round have always extracted the bad case.
I do not think it is a headspace problem, it is just what these rifles tend to do with reloads at a certain point.
If a case has been reloaded a few times, and a wire it inserted into the case mouth, sometimes a groove can be felt a few mm in front of the rim, where the case is about to separate. Another warning sign, is a ligther coloured line around the case, and this is where the brass is stretched thin and will fail .

Hope this helps!
Richard.

[Ovidio]

Thank you very much Richard,

it will certainly help.
I tried the screwdriver, but the case is really stuck, like last time.
I’ll wait for the removal plug I ordered at Brownell’s and see, otherwise I’ll again have to go to the gunsmith.
The remaining brass will immediately land in the waste bin.
I had enough of these accidents.
Now that I got the rifle perfectly sighted in with its original rear sight.
Even yesterday, the first shot was dead centre at 100 meters. The following 5 also all in the bullseye, event the last one, which broke.
And again, right when things were getting really funny....game over.
Arghhhhh!!!

[RobD]

Dear Ovidio,
This is a frequently-discussed problem, you'll see many threads and diagrams about what happens. Here's my personal experience:
I had a MLE which was in lovely condition, but it split brass and in the end I just sold it on. I have never subsequently had any problem with any of my other .303s, so I think it must have just had an oversize chamber. Short of getting rid of it, here are simple ways to reduce the tendency to split brass:
1. use good quality cases - avoid Sellier & Bellot; choose Prvi Partizan or Greek surplus HXP.
2. Segregate your cases, and neck resize the ones used in the problem rifle [don't full-length resize].
3. Ask your gunsmith to check the headspace, and change boltheads as needed - though this is not likely to be a big contributor to case splitting. When you say you have a 0 bolthead on a No 1 rifle, this puzzles me somewhat, as I understood the No 1 boltheads were not numbered for size.
all the best
Rob