.45 acp lee enfield project

SHELL SHUCKER

SHELL SHUCKER

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Today was range testing day for my .45 ACP Enfield, and it was a fun to
shoot little rifle. I started this project after reading a post on CGN about
.45 Enfield kits from North Shore Barrels. I contacted Sean at North Shore
and ordered up a kit with a 14" Shilen chrome moly barrel. These kits are from
Special Interest Arms in Arizona and consist of a magazine adapter, a Brewer
type locking collar for the barrel and a ejector pin assembly. North Shore
supplies the barrels. Note: The barrels come as straight, 1" diameter tubes
and are pre-theaded for your reciever. It's up to you to contour and polish
the barrel to your liking.

It took a few months for everthing to come together, but I didn't mind cause
it gave me the time to find and prep a No. 4 Mk1 smelly for conversion. It
was an easy project to perform and I fluked out big time on finding the parts
needed for the rifle I envisioned.

The range testing went fine and the Blazer Brass .230 gr.FMJ ammo I was
using put a nice 1 1/8" cluster onto the bull at 25 yds. while using the battle
aperature. The group was centered, but 2" low. No worries though, cause
the flip-up, click adjustable apperature takes care of that. After setting
zero, smacking golf balls off into the nether regions was dead easy out to
50 yds. Once I do a little fine tuning of the action and develop a good
200gr. cast bullet load for it ,then grey squirrels beware!

This is not a project for the average gun tinkerer, but for the capable gunsmith it will be a worthy build that will make you smile on every pull of the trigger.

Check out Special Interest Arms for the Surpusrifle.com kit installation
article which is linked there. It's a good one and tells you how to do the
work with good photos.
If you want to order a kit for Lee Enfield, contact Sean at North Shore Barrels.

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Tru-Oil is THE way to go!
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Port side view showing the ejector pin assy'. The trigger is from Huber
Concepts and is adjustable for both let-off & over-travel.
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I put about 5 hours into the barrel on my buddys' lathe to get this result.
The front sight is a Garand National Match unit mounted upon an old
Shultz & Larsen sight base.
 
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WOW. what a cool project. As I like the .45 ACP I must consider one of these. I would have to have a machinist do the barrel though, as the lathe that I used to get to use got wrecked in a rollover.

A beauty she is.

Rifleman.
 
Thanks Guy's;
Over in the UK, they call these conversions PC Gallery Rifles. They,re used in the
action shooting sport of Gallery Shooting which is IPSC shooting using non-auto
carbines. The matches can run to 3 hours and the variety of tricked out carbines
is great for ideas on build-ups. One company, Armalon builds Enfields in calibers
from 9mm. to .50 AE. The .357 mag.,..44 mag. & .50AE rifles use Desert Eagle
magazines. Marlin and Rossi lever guns are quite popular as well.
Check out the UK Gallery Shooting sites for lots of good pics and info on the sport.
 
That's a great looking project, the barrel should last forever, and provide cheap plinking with cast bullets, prolly not much more then .22rf....congrats!!
 
I love it, very nice work!

Does that ejector pin assembly mean boring a hole through the receiver? I'm thinking so.

How reliable is it for feed, extraction and ejection?
 
cantom said:
I love it, very nice work!

Does that ejector pin assembly mean boring a hole through the receiver? I'm thinking so.

How reliable is it for feed, extraction and ejection?
Click to expand...

Thankyou Muchly!
Yes, you must drill and tap an 8-32 hole through the reciever to accept the
ejector pin assy' , which is merely a long-pin ,spring plunger screw with
a cap threaded to the top. Feeding is fine from the magazine and extraction
/ejection is nice,with the empties landing only a few inches to the side of the
rifle whilst shooting from the bench, but the extractor spring in the bolt head
has to be annealed so as not to place too much sideways pressure on the
cartridge. The stock spring forces the cartridge against the chamber wall
causing a lot of drag, both going in and coming out, and is the number one
buggaboo to feeding and extraction issues in these conversions.
It's not mentioned in the must read article linked below, but it has to be done to ensure a smooth action.
Cheers

http://www.surplusrifle.com/articles2008/sia_45_enfield/index.asp
 
ben hunchak said:
That's a great looking project, the barrel should last forever, and provide cheap plinking with cast bullets, prolly not much more then .22rf....congrats!!
Click to expand...

Thanks Ben;
I love tossin' big hunks-o-lead into whatever targets that need or deserve
schoozting! Lead is our friend as long as we handle & work with it careful like.
I appreciate jacketed bullets for target work, but only if the barrel tells me so.
Other than that, give me lead, low and slow so that my guns will give some deserving shooter down the road a nice, accurate as the day it was built gun. The way it otta be!
Cheers;
JJ
 
The front sight is a Smith Foundry unit from Brownells and cost around 48 bucks before shipping. It is an M1 Garand National Match front sight. The fun part is finding a base to
mount it on! Luckily, my friend Chuck had a raised dovetail sight band from an old
Shultz & Larsen target rifle that he let me have for 10 bucks. Sure saved me some
metal whittlin' time, that's for sure!
 
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