To bed or not to bed a Lee Enfield No.1 Mk 3

[Seaspriter]

I'm in Canada, where No.4's seem to be more popular than SMLE's.

Wave the Maple Leaf and buy a Long Branch (either a No. Mk1/3 which has the trigger upgraded, or a 1949-50, many of which are in like-new condition)

In the US these can still be purchased for under $400. I'm not sure what the price/demand is in Canada, but we have a dozen Milsurp experts from Canada following this thread that can give you good leads or maybe have one in their closet collecting dust that needs a good home.

[British Mandarin]

I just had a thought. Maybe I could save myself all the trouble by getting a Fulton regulated SMLE? Might cost a lot, but the Lee Enfield is the only rifle I intend to own.

[Ridolpho]

BM: Personally I find the SMLE easier to shoot at distance than the No. 4- quirk of the eyes, perhaps? The 0.10 inch apertures on the No. 4 are pretty coarse. I would suggest you heed all the advice presented here and put your efforts into finding the best possible original condition rifle of whichever type you go with. By original condition I mean "as issued, maintained, or repaired" for the initial user- some branch of some army. You want one with an excellent bore that sits in the wood the way it was meant to. If you go SMLE you might look for a WW2 vintage or WW2 or later refurb. Wood does deteriorate and a forend installed by factory in the fifties is likely going to still be OK. One of my early ones was a '21 Lithgow that had been re-barreled by the Australians in '42 and, apparently, not used afterwards. The wood is excellent and the bore is perfect and it shoots far better than I do. Watch out for rifles "desporterized" by hobbyists. They aren't all up to snuff.

Ridolpho

[British Mandarin]

Ah last question. The PH5A sight for the No.1 Mk 3 requires no drilling or anything to mount it right? I just wanted to double check with an article I read. Are there any similar sights that require no drilling?

[Robert303]

There are earlier BSA No 9 sights and a few Australian Central Sights. go to Service and TArget Rifle Sights ~ Parker-Hale and B.S.A. for the full description. If you have trouble geting the screwx to fix the %A onto the rfle with just PM me and I can pass on details of supliers. If buying a 5A try to make sure it is NOT bent! There is NO need what so ever to drill an SMLE for a target sight.

[ssj]

Enfields can due to their age and [ab]use now shoot very badly ie 4 ~6 MOA and you cant learn to shoot on a gun that sprays all over the place randomly which bad ones can do. Making these work can be a huge effort so I'd suggest you dont bother especially if you dont know how to shoot? Otherwise if you want to learn to shoot and shoot service rifle I'd suggest an Ar15. Or if you really want an Enfield a pattern1914.

[RobD]

Mandarin, here's my 5c:
I would start by joining my local historical shooting club. Then, at the range, you are bound to find a few nice fellows who will let you have a go with their .303s.
When you have decided on a model to buy, and have found a good candidate rifle, you should ask either to test it at the range (preferably); or at the least, to be shown a target that the rifle has shot in the hands of someone else.
Sadly, some rifles can't group for toffee and others mysteriously fail to stabilise the bullet (let the bullets keyhole), while others are tack drivers which are a joy to shoot.
Yet no visual inspection can reliably tell you how they will shoot.
I bet all of us have had a mixture of bad and good rifles, and getting rid of a bad one is far more difficult than you might imagine...

[Brian Dick]

There's no mystery to a key holing problem Rob. It just means the rifle has been shot extensively with cordite ammo and the wear pattern in the leade or throat will no longer stabilize the projectile. The problem really only presents itself when boat tail projectiles are used. I really wish one of the big manufacturers would produce a flat base Mk.7 projectile. It's been discussed at length here before. I went 'round and 'round with Sierra about it. I even sent them pulled projectiles for study. Unfortunately, I don't have the thousands of dollars it will take for them to tool up. In North America we can shoot the 180 grain Pro Hunters and their equivalent but they're no good for you since soft point hunting projectiles are prohibited for target shooting. Manufacturers like Remington and Winchester have the tooling and have been producing excellent Mk.7z ammo for ever but only Remington-UMC puts out the ammo with a batch produced every now and again. Winchester doesn't even offer it.

[vintage hunter]

I went 'round and 'round with Sierra about it

Have you went to Hornady with your idea? They're already making several oddball bullets for specific applications. The .268 Carcano. .330'' 8x56R, .330'' Lebel Revolver and .320'' Nambu come to mind. Perhaps they could be persuaded to make one more.

[Brian Dick]

Nope, I'll leave it to someone else now. I've got too much other stuff on my plate.