LSA 1911 Enfield shooting drastically low

[nicolesman]

Hello!

Recently took my newly acquired LSA made 1911 enfield out. It was refurbed in 1913 and then again in 1941 (new barrel in 41).

Well it functions and shoots but was shooting very low (estimate at close to 2-3 feet low) at ~75 yards. If I push the rear site adjustment to ~600 it appears to shoot on. Of course then it still shoots about 6 inches to the right from point of aim.

Would this likely be something I would adjust the front sight for? (ie how?) or is there more going on?

Thanks

Information

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[Eaglelord17]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but to raise the POI you would have to file or replace the front sight with a lower one.

Before you start doing anything, what type of ammo are you using? The ammo could have a large effect on the POI.

[nicolesman]

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but to raise the POI you would have to file or replace the front sight with a lower one.

Before you start doing anything, what type of ammo are you using? The ammo could have a large effect on the POI.

I used the wolf 303 bimetal 174 g. I have had great success with it in my ishapore No1 mk3 1943 and my 1918 enfield factory No1 mk3.

[22SqnRAE]

I used the wolf 303 bimetal 174 g. I have had great success with it in my ishapore No1 mk3 1943 and my 1918 enfield factory No1 mk3.

NM,

Having had some experience in this forum asking about high/low throws, I'll save you some grief by giving you an insight to the likely responses.

My first suggestion, based purely on reading numerous threads on this Wolf ammo (which I don't recall seeing in Oz) is to try another brand of ammo and repeat the experiment. A potentially good idea will be to include several brands and loads of ammo, if you're not a hand loader. On the basis of several variables being included, see what the outcome is. Are they all low, are they consistently low and in the same spot? Are they low and all over the place?

From what I have observed in some people's description, this Wolf stuff features regularly in people's rage, venting, hypertension attacks and lots of colourful words being selected and expectorated towards the target and ammo box. No personal experience myself with it, but from the numerous complaints, there seems to be a consistent theme. It's as reliable as a Greek Banker with the monthly EU interest payment.

Have a go with several recipes and see how you go. Don't get too excited just yet (in your scientific data collection phase) with drastic mechanical alteration of the sight components.

There, you've been given a prescription for joy - more projectiles to be sent down range. Now who could complain about such a pleasurable remedy?

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

Good advice from 22SgnRAE. Front sight blades are available in different heights but going from the highest to the lowest would only change the point of impact about 16" at 100 yards. If you're two or three feet low, something else is going on.

[Ridolpho]

nicolesman: Finding an old milsurp that's not zeroed is pretty common. With the uncertain history of most, who knows what tinkering has been done. I've even found Mosins and SVT 40's fresh from refurb that weren't even crudely zeroed (although in the case of the Mosin they might have been zeroed with bayonet mounted). I would suggest that before wasting more ammo you simply bore sight the rifle. Set it in a rest and compare the view down the bore (at a 100 yard object) with the view in the sights at the lowest setting. Get it roughly on and you should be on the paper for additional fine tuning. Alternately you could buy one of those cheap laser boresighters and align the sights at 25 yards. And when you return to the range get yourself a really large backing for your target that allows you to find your shots even with very poor zero. I learned this during a frustrating summer of attempting to get a couple of Sniders to shoot. Good luck.

Ridolpho

[Badger]

Perhaps this will help ..

Sighting Instructions For The Enfield Rifle

Regards,
Doug

[Ovidio]

I'd follow Ridolpho's suggestion.
Or you could also go this other way, which I have followed with many a rifle.
I go to the 25 meter line and put a nice black dot (or a 2 inch reactive target) on the rear of a standard pistol target. Shoot a couple of commercial rounds (if I don't know the caliber yet, otherwise I use one of my well known reloads) and see where I shoot.
At 25 meters you'll almost always land on the paper with a standard pistol target, unless everything is really crappy.
This part is my substitute for the bore sighting.
Once you're on paper, see what needs to be done to get on target.
Maybe you have a very high front blade, but before touching it, I would just try standard commercial ammo at close range, then see if I can get on paper/target at 100 meters.
If you do at 25, you'll most probably do at 100 as well.
If you have to adjust at 600 to get the job done at 100, if that does not create any other problems, why touch the rifle?
I have a couple Mausers where I changed the front sight with a flat and higher one (the only ones I found) and now aim with the rear sight at 5 or 600, but works great and does not bother me at all.

[CINDERS]

I would check to see if everything was tight first screw wise then do what 22sqn says collate the data find what shoots the best (groups) do not worry about elevation just yet get the results here and the learned ones will help.
Being refurbed in '41 means not much in the scheme of things as what has it been through in the intervening 76 years.
Wolf ammo is about as cheap and nasty as it gets think I posted a utube of a Garand being blown up by it cannot remember the outcome if it was operator error or ammo the fire arm shop did replace the Garand.
Wolf ammo I would stay away from, Sellier Bellot ammo's good, Remington, Federal go with known brands.

After all this is done and you got her going good oh you can start down the reloading path which is another science by itself with the old girls.
Good luck.

[Son]

What was the rear sight set at when first testing?
If you set the the sight back as far as it will go in some rifles the slider has fallen off the back of the ramp and dropped, making the rifle shoot very low... in others (depending on the fitting...) the slider engages the fingers of the rear handguard and lifts, making it shoot high.
The furthest back you can have your rear sight slider and be sure it is on the ramp is the 200yd mark.

May not be the source of your problem, but just something for everyone to keep in mind on top of the great advice already posted...