Smle n0.1 mkiii*

[bosco555]

G'day everyone. Could some benevolent soul please settle the following once and for all? (As I am pulling what's left of my hair, out).. Thank you in advance.

Regarding the above rifle/s, can I remove the barrel band completely?
As far as bedding is concerned, what is the best method for bedding the barrel?

Also can someone please enlighten me regarding the status of Sweet's book?

I have purchased the new "2012 Complete book on Enfield Accurizing", and I read it, but I am still confused re the above...
thank you all and best regards
gb

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[Son]

Ok... for starters, find some good fertilizer to help your hair get through this... it could get worse before it gets better ... oh, and welcome to the forum

Which barrel band are you wanting to get rid of and why? If the inner band, yes you can (for some bedding techniques) and no you can't for others...

Before we get too far into supposition, can you tell us a bit about your rifle. Who made it (should be on the right side of the butt socket) and when (same place) Is it still in original configuration or has it been (shudder) sporterized? Does it have it's original bolt and barrel?

What do you want to do? Shoot Olympic qualifying scores or simply punch holes in paper for your own enjoyment?

Anyone who has "fiddled" to any degree with these rifles will tell you no single method seems to work with all of them. If you can fill in some of the blanks the guys here might be able to help you find the best non destructive way to squeeze a little more accuracy out of your rifle. Personally I am a big fan of the standard bedding with standard weight barrels.

Anyone else care to chip in with anything?

[Bruce_in_Oz]

I guess you are talking about the inner band, i.e. the one that fits inside the fore end and is pulled down towards the fore end by a special screw.

It is not terribly hard to remove; especially if you remove the front sight assembly first.

Do you have a specific reason for wanting it gone? It is an essential part of the original bedding system that was one of the last great refinements of the basic SMLE. That band, the little spring and plunger under the nose cap and the tiny extra cut-out at the top of the barrel hole in the nose cap, all acted to optimize the performance of the barrel with Mk7 ball. In real-world ordnance systems, it is a lot easier to manufacture ammo that performs well from a high-grade test barrel and tweak the rifles, than have "custom" ammo for each rifle.

Feeding a correctly set-up SMLE any ammo other than Mk7 Ball will produce different results, some better, most worse. If you want to keep the rifle in original condition, leave the inner band in place and keep all the screws firmly done up.

As decent Mk7 ammo is now rarer than the rifles, hand loading is the only way to go. The trick is to find a bullet of approximately the same shape and weight and go from there. (Avoid boat-tails.) The correct propellant will be one that, by all modern practice, is a bit "faster" than one would expect.

Sweet's book has gone back into print, courtesy of his family, and should be available. It covers several different methods for tweaking a SMLE. However, ALL of them are based on the use of standard Mk7 ball, as that was the ONLY ammo used in competition.

I would pretty much guarantee that EVERY change to the way the barrel is mounted WILL change down-range performance. If you fiddle with the rifle and ammo simultaneously.you will end up chasing your own tail until the barrel burns out.

Cheers,
Bruce

[Rastis]

G"day,
Does the "new" Sweets book cover SMLE's as I have read an older print and it was only about the 7.62/.308. I have been on the look out for an earlier print but if the latest has .303 I will just get it.

Rastis

[bosco555]

Hi all and thanks for the replies....yeah tried the fertilizer already, even got bat cr@p, but no joy..hehe!!!

OK..I have no idea who built it, but I attach a couple of pics here. The rifle has not been sporterized..thank goodness for that, people who destroy rifles that way should have their gonads squashed in a vise!!!

The bolt doesn't match, but I have head-spaced it checking that it doesn't close on a no-go gauge (.074)!!
The idea of removing the band was born reading here and there, some people swear by it, some other say to leave it alone. Just wanted to know what the best was.

Also, how tight should it be?

As far as the bedding goes, I was going to bed the barrel along the bottom, so that it would basically lie on the bedding and not on the nose cap/screws etc.

Ammo, I do reload, as I also have other rifles that I use for hunting/competitions. Yep, boat-tails are no good, found Barnes 150gr.TSX all copper proggies, albeit pricy.

Hope this clarifies the situation, thanks again and best to all
g

[Peter Laidler]

Might I respectfully suggest that if I was you, I'd fit the fore-end exactly as the EMER instructions and take on board Bruces comments in thread 3. I can only speak from my own limited experience of the No4 rifle and tell you that of all the trials, tests and experiments and whatever else you want to call them carried out on the No4 rifle, and the T, NONE ever out performed the standard method of stocking-up.

And if you really want to try some other method, you'll have to (?) use a rest that eliminates the human factor. It's the RIFLE that's being trialled and not the foibles of the shooter. An Enfield rest is a good idea to start with. just my 2c's worth

[Homer]

Peter all your 2c's are starting to add up