1965 7.62 LeeEnfield, should I buy it?

[ArtioZen]

Hi BahamaLure - nice work shooting in the low temps with wind - I prefer less than perfect conditions! I will tolerate heavy rain and near freezing conditons - keeps the range nice and quiet and the "battle rifle" does not mind! The subject lip looks like a high protruding front plate in the mag body - you could choose to file that out of the way - this action may have been executed when in service - or try small bend as advised. Either way it should feed and cycle when home. These were built for FMJ tho and they will cycle better. I also stay away from steel case, PMC make affordable reloadable brass. Sometimes I have to settle for soft points and accept slow purposefull loading - lead is a PITA to clean off your ramp! You coud also pick up an aftermarket 10 round box othe internet and enjoy fitting and tweaking that instead - then preserve the original box - especially if numbers matching to the rifle -orignal Ishapore mags seem to run 60 -80 around my parts. I enjoyed my Ishapore enormously - definatley a rifle to take for a walk in the woods - no worries about ruining its looks! Your next Enfields can be lookers with stamps, features and history. You will likely get a lot of interest in the Ishapore at the range, I trade turns with range colleagues and have gotten to shoot K98s, M1s and the like in turn for a go on the "Enfield"

[Peter Laidler]

Someone asked about magazine fitting. If you all hang on a week or so I am most of the way through one of those pictorial essays of how to repair the back-strap as we used to do them on a bulk scale at our Base Workshops and then PROPERLY fit the magazine to the rifle, both at the front magazine stop face AND at the rear strap.

[BahamaLure]

I gave the magazine lip some love and it now has a slight ramp that improved things greatly. Without doubt the soft lead tips are no help at all, I will ask the range for some better rounds with no steel cases or lead tips. Other than that the rifle continues to clean up, I built a custom rack to hold it while cleaning. Will shoot again in the new year. All the best for 2013!

[BahamaLure]

Is it me or is that paint on the metal? What about the bridge over the bolt, looks like it is slotted for some kind of sight or scope mount?


the wrist band is badly scratched, looks like on purpose with sandpaper for some reason, pity that.

[Ridolpho]

BahamaLure: Yes, that's black paint. On my 2A1, which appears quite original and lightly used, there are already big ugly flakes breaking away to expose bare metal. The "bridge" is the charger bridge which accepts stripper clips for quick loading. Yours pretty much resembles the original ones which first appeared on the No. I mkIII. I'll try to upload a couple of side shots of my 2A1 later today so you can see what a non-sporterized one looks like.

Ridolpho

[Ridolpho]

As promised here's a few shots of my 2A1. Pretty much original although now that I look at it closely again I suspect it's fresh from some kind of re-fit. The forend, while numbered to this action/ barrel has a previous number marked on it and has two matching patches either side of the receiver ring. The wood is of an unknown variety to me- waxy and probably soft. You can see the black paint and how it's flaking off in places. Not bad looking from a distance but up close the forend is quite crudely shaped and could never be mistaken for an older one. I bought it because I'm trying to get as wide a time range of Lee Enfields as possible. My time-span now runs from 1896 to this 1965 (second newsest is a 1960 Pakistani No.4 Mk2 which is of dramatically higher quality).

Ridolpho

[BahamaLure]

thanks Ridolpho, is there a thread somewhere on how to disassemble the rifle?

I would also love to extend the stock some too...

Thanks also to Henry for offering me a speed loading clip to go with the rifle

[Ridolpho]

BahamaLure: You could probably glean the disassembly procedure from numerous threads but I would suggest you invest in at least one book- "For Collectors Only, British Enfield Rifles, Volume 1, 3rd ed., revised, SMLE (No.1) Rifles MkI and MkIII" by Charles R. Stratton, North cape Publications. Great little inexpensive book available all the time on e-bay. There's a picture of a 2A or 2A1 on the cover. If you get bit by the bug and acquire more of these rifles it will come in handy.

Ridolpho

[ArtioZen]

Here are photos of my old 2A - all numbers matching - many hours of tuning and learning - I hope they help you and others enjoy these rifles.

[BahamaLure]

Took the Ishapore out yesterday just because I could, went much better than the first time too! Shot the remainder of the steel case rounds at 25 yds, made a good 2" group with some key-holing so that was encouraging. We dug around the range stores and found some better ammunition I bought this box, plus they had some match rounds that were priced way higher and not what I need at this point. What do the codes on this box tell me?



These rounds cycled better out of the magazine, but still not perfect, the left side does not work as well as the right for some reason, tinkering still to do?