Bizarre Safety Warning from the NRA

[ireload2]

The .303 and 7.62 cases are almost identical in case capacity.
If a 7.62 barrel is throated to take advantage of the magazine length of a Lee-Enfield it can be loaded to the same velocities at the same pressures with the same projectiles. The real advantage of the 7.62 is the great number of high quality bullets manufactured in that diameter and the more commonly available and less expensive brass.

Information

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[Alfred]

The .303 and 7.62 cases are almost identical in case capacity.
If a 7.62 barrel is throated to take advantage of the magazine length of a Lee-Enfield it can be loaded to the same velocities at the same pressures with the same projectiles. The real advantage of the 7.62 is the great number of high quality bullets manufactured in that diameter and the more commonly available and less expensive brass.

There yah go.
I've experimented with seeing how well the standard .303 magazines will feed dummy 7X57 cartridges. These feed just fine without alterations of the mags I tried them in.
The shorter standard OAL 7.62 if set back to the rear of the mag would need to have forwards feed lips fabricated and brazed or silver soldered to the mag body at a point where they engaged the bullet body in the same manner as the regular lips engage the bullets of the longer cases. A much longer bullet set to aprox 3 inch OAL would probably feed from an unaltered mag.

A throat cut to allow the bullets to be set out that far would compromise accuracy with the standard 7.62, but not by much. Some rifles were quite accurate with significant freebore.

A bull barrel or stepped barrel threaded to allow the barrel to be set back and torqued with a collar would allow the barrel to be re chambered to eliminate throat erosion and the barrel could last until mechanical erosion wore the rifling down all the way to the muzzle.
Start off with a 28 inch tube and it should last till set back to 25 in or so. From what I've read on the subject worn barrels set back in this manner are generally more accurate than when new.


I had considered having a 7X57 Mauser replacement barrel turned to fit the Enfield receiver, but a book on the Mauser barrel profiles showed these were too small to rethread ahead of the shoulder.
If I'd found a cheap barrel to experiment with I'd have first chambered it for 7X30 Waters, a .280 using the .30-30 casing. Then later chambering for 7X57.

A 7X57 conversion would also allow a great range of quality match grade bullets.

The slow but steady increase in interest in reloading the .303 made such a conversion un necessary. Quality components are available now, so long as the bore of an individual Enfield isn't too large in the Major diameter to take advantage of the .311 bullets.

A .310 bore would be a good compromise, allowing any likely .303 bullet size and not too large for the .308 bullets to remain useful.

[enforsore]

I've been away a while on business, and i thought i'd try and get an update.
someone at the NRA (won't mention who, to protect them).
said the NRA were about to issue a withdrawl of the safety warning, following a mountain of complaints ...... and the threat of legal action.
we will wait and see.

[Strangely Brown]

I've been away a while on business, and i thought i'd try and get an update.
someone at the NRA (won't mention who, to protect them).
said the NRA were about to issue a withdrawl of the safety warning, following a mountain of complaints ...... and the threat of legal action.
we will wait and see.

I think their like a rudder less ship without Martin Farnham there at the moment; love him or hate him Martin does (or did) speak a lot of sense, in fact since his departure he has been seen shooting Service Rifle with a No4!