whatshould I know..

[jjroth]

about a RFI, 1964, SMLE in 7.62NATO?
Local shop has one for $260.
Thanks for responses

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[RJW NZ]

hmm, they're basically a solid rifle with few if any problems, many of them were surplused with good bores but dirty wood. In the wood dept. Look for any signs of a hairline crack running forward of the big screw just in front of the magazine, unless you have a spare fore end, or must have the rifle, a crack like this is caused by recoil and will make the gun unshootable real fast the speed it keeps on growing, pass if it has this crack.
Other wood repairs are common and not serious, most often butt corners from parade duty and around the receiver area from general use.
Otherwise, there's parts a plenty from no1mk3's, and you can buy 308 ammo a little easier than 303. The price isn't too bad , especially as enfields go up slowly but surely, recently $185 - $225 would have been a more common price. Look at gunbroker.com so see other enfields in 308 and what prices fecth 4 the condition.
Buy...

[Steve H. in N.Y.]

+1 on RJWT32's comments. A matching serial number on the bolt handle is very desirable and if the numbers on the underside of the rear sight leaf, on the front of the nosecap and under the forend also match, that would be nice. Black paint is the normal metal finish.

[Prairie Fire]

Good rifle, not a bad price if you have a fair amount of 7.62 ammo laid in. The best "get-rid-of" ammo for this gun is the Chinese counterfeit RG that comes in 200 round galvanized spam cans. I'd sooner clean corrosive out of bolt guns than autoloaders.

As said already, a weak point with these rifles, is the wood. I've looked inside half a dozen and found carpet tacks being used as metal-to-wood bearing areas. Found much split wood towards the rear of the forestock, inside, small pieces splintering. These rifles are easy enough for a home hobbiest to glass-bed. The NRA pamphlet which gives good enough instructions, is probably still available from the Lairds of Fairfax.

Most of the Ishapore 2As and 2A1s that I have seen, have some cast-off on the buttstock angle, where I've not seen this with British rifles. Not sure why they were made this way. I'd pick cast off over cast on, but would prefer a buttstock laid in the same axis as the bore.

Prior to any bedding work, you might want to sweat the cosmoline out of the wood. Strip off the wood and place it in the hottest place you can think of for a couple of weeks. If you have a spare vehicle, park it facing south and put a towel on the dashboard, put the wood on that. Wipe off the grease every afternoon for a while. When you get the gun hot from shooting, you will likely still get grease out of the forestock and HGs after several years.

You might want to lay in a couple of extractor springs, available cheaply from gun parts corp. You can entertain yourself by laying specimens of those springs side-by-side and viewing the differences between them. That spring is a part I've seen as broken from the get-go in 2 of 6 rifles I've come across, so conclude that it is a part that you might want to have on hand.

The body's charging guide does take NATO strippers, a plus. I have found them to be faster in use than Enfield chargers in .303. But I imagine that this is my fault, should be able to do better with Enfield chargers.

This is a pretty good gun, I'd hop on it if you already have ammo.

[goo]

i think you should get it. you should be able to haggle a bit, though

i got one for about 10 years now.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/63...9dacc7.jpg?v=0

once i cleaned the sacred cow dung off it ,i was pretty happy. sometimes they don't feed or eject too good. the feed problem is usually the magazine and not the rifle. the eject problem is probably a weak extractor spring. if you don't don't like the wood and don't care about being proper you can get a set of 303 smle wood to fit it.
...
SMLE*|*NO. 1 MKIII*|*e-GunParts.com
...
SMLE*|*NO. 2A MKIII ISHAPORE*|*e-GunParts.com
...
here's one that's for sale for you to use as a reference.
...
India Enfield MK1 .308 Cal. (A4392-09) - Auction: 9164156 (Ends 06/12/2009, 17:01:11 PST)


get a 2a and not a 2a1. the 2a1's only shoot to 800 yards.

i think that next to yugo m48 mausers, of which i have 3, the 2a's and 2a1's are among the last of the milsurp good deals.
...
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/29/63...e6e665.jpg?v=0
...
mine's about a 4.0 moa shooter. i stuck a parker hale 5a sight on it.