Availability of downloaded 7.62X51 ammo?

[Light Infantry]

Exactly, Claven.

no issues in firing 7.62 NATO ammo in these rifles.

LI

Information

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[Cantom]

Exactly, Claven.

no issues in firing 7.62 NATO ammo in these rifles.

LI

I found this interesting:




Re: best rifle ? .303 or 7.62 Enfield
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 4:00 pm

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With all due respect, Hansvonhealing, stories about Enfield action weakness are myth, mostly originating from uninformed articles in US gun publications. Like most urban myths, there is no detectable evidence to substantiate it - and in fact the statistical evidence (c.12 million Enfields made of all types) shows that all types of Enfield actions are far stronger than their supposed design limits.

The No4 action is very strong: there are no known issues with it firing 144gn 7.62mm NATO ball at all. When target shooters moved to 155 gn bullets, and started ramping the loads up to maintain supersonic velocities at 1000 yds, the NRA took fright and required Enfield no4-actioned rifles to be proofed to 20 tonnes (up from 19T). No4 actions pass this proof with no problems. I have an Envoy with a documented 11,000 rnds of 155gn 7.62mm through it: the rifle still has good headspace on its original "0" bolthead - ie there has been no appreciable receiver stretch.

The No1 action is less substantial, and some are now over 100 years old. No1 receivers do eventually wear out, although this is usually only detectable with correct gauges. When a No1 receiver fails, the only indication is usually bolt binding as the receiver warps, and sometimes a visible crack in the region of the ejector screw. Catastrophic failure (ie bits flying off and/or shooter injury) is just about unknown - I personally do not know of a single documented example. A Canadian university destruction tested an SMLE receiver - already weakened with drilled holes - by blocking the barrel and using super-high pressure rounds. After managing to shoot off the bits of barrel that were plugged (snow, mud, then iron spikes!), the receiver eventually just bent and trapped the bolt - no catastrophic failure occurred.

A strong and persistent myth is that the Indian 2A1 version of the No1 is made of "high strength steel" to "cope with the 7.62mm round". There is actually no documented evidence of this production variation; on the contrary, examination of the receivers shows that they frequently have older, British or Indian inspection marks, which proves that they are simply the same .303 receivers as used on the concurrent .303 No1 production.

Another story originates from Australia, where military experiments were carried out in converting .303 Lithgow No1s to 7.62mm. These experiments were stopped "because the conversion was not suitable". This has been mythologised into a fact that the No1s "were not strong enough". In fact there is no published data about these tests, so it is simply not known, for example, if (a) the rifles were simply destruction-tested with proof rounds, (b) they worked ok, but the expected service life of the receiver wasn't economic for the military, or (c) it was the 1960s and they had just agreed to adopt the FAL rifle instead. It should be noted that in Australia many No1s were converted to fire magnum and other "wild-cat" hunting rounds - and there is still no folk history of "problems".

What most modern civilian shooters also overlook is that Enfields are military rifles, and they were outstandingly successful in every theatre of war - desert, arctic, jungle, rain-swept northern Europe. On much of this military service, Enfields - particularly No1s in the WW1 trenches - were fired using wet, oily or muddy ammunition. Firing ammunition in this state greatly increases the back-pressure on the bolt, as the cartridge case does not grip the chamber walls on firing (this is the principle used in proof testing weapons with oiled ammunition). Despite this abuse, there is still no known problem with the rifle actions (unlike with some Mauser actions, it should be stressed!).

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