7.62x39 Enfield... My little quest...

I test fired my No. 4 7.62x39 conversion this past week.
Chamber was cut with a commercial reamer. Case still needed a bit of persuasion to extract. My bolthead doesn't have an extractor or ejector yet, I wanted to test the boltface conversion. Hooked the case out with a screwdriver. I suspect that it is the steel cased ammunition, not the chamber condition that is contributing to the extraction issue. I have a modified SVT 40 muzzle unit installed with brake and front sight.
Lee Enfield barrel to 7.62x39 is an easy conversion. Shorten, cut the threads further up the shank, recut the remains of the chamber. The front end of the .303 chamber is so close to the 7.62x39 that minimal reaming is required.
 
Made it to the range today, with a camera no less! I spent a while on the 100 yard range...

While it's nothing to be proud of as a target rifle I can actually hit what I aim at (as long as I'm hunting "dinner plate and up" sized quarry at no more than 100 yards) with Czech mil-surp. I'm not much of a shot to begin with but it was kinda windy, and the front sight is a little hard to see, and I'd had lots of coffee, and.... :redface:

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I'm kinda kicking myself for not building on my other Tanker Enfield action as it is drilled and tapped for a scope... I'd really like to know what this rifle is capable of with Mil-surp.

I had two stuck cases out of ~100 rnds fired but they were easily tapped out with a range rod that I thought to bring. It doesn't bug me to have to clear the odd stuck case if it's only one for every few boxes of super cheap ammo :)

My mags are grating on my nerves enough now that I think it's time to revisit the design and try to come up with a permanent solution. I meant to have a look at a VZ mag and see if it could be adapted or gutted to make one good 15-20 rnd mag with reliable feeding. It's a hoot just hand loading singles and I had a good time trying to ring the 200 yard gong for a while.

All in all I'm calling it a success :D

MB
 
MiltonBradly said:
Absolutely... Ill send you my info so you can transfer it to me, I'd love to do another tanker. I don't shoot my other baby as much as I'd like due to the fact it's .303Brit and I don't know where to get cheap bullets to reload with...

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MB
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Oh that's a nice looking rifle. :)

BTW for cheap ammo just pull the 123 grainers from the cz surplus, and reload them in the .303 cases. :D

IIRC Steve at 303british.com has reloading info for this combo.
 
MiltonBradly said:
Made it to the range today, with a camera no less! I spent a while on the 100 yard range...

While it's nothing to be proud of as a target rifle I can actually hit what I aim at (as long as I'm hunting "dinner plate and up" sized quarry at no more than 100 yards) with Czech mil-surp. I'm not much of a shot to begin with but it was kinda windy, and the front sight is a little hard to see, and I'd had lots of coffee, and.... :redface:............All in all I'm calling it a success :D

MB
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Nice shooting, IMHO.....:cheers:
 
You are correct about the steel cased crap leading to hard extraction. Had the same problem with my conversion. Going to brass cases solved that. Just loaded up another batch of winchester cases. Leave the steel cased stuff for the SKS
 
John Sukey said:
You are correct about the steel cased crap leading to hard extraction. Had the same problem with my conversion. Going to brass cases solved that. Just loaded up another batch of winchester cases. Leave the steel cased stuff for the SKS
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I have found the same issues with Mosin Nagants sticky with the steel laccured cases but no issues with brass cases.

I'm really thinking I'm going to have to try this conversion. I know I have a rifle that has the last few inches and bayonet lug cut off the barrel and no mag :) Just the time to set it up in the lathe. Oh and the D reamer bot to make one out of an old drill bit shank :D
 
mbogo3 said:
Is the laquer melting as fired and causing the sticking?Harold
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Yes, I suspect so...

You can see a bit of a white-ish haze around the neck of the upper case here...

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Some of the fired cases have far more pronounced "hazing" around the neck. My chamber is likely a little looser around the neck than a factory chamber cut with a proper reamer... It might be overworking the case or blowing a little gas back around the neck and softening the coating causing the occasional stuck case. I should cast my chamber and see how it turned out, perhaps I could polish it a bit more... Whatever the case, if clearing a few stuck cases is the price I have to pay for ~$5 boxes of ammo it's fine with me.

Any chance someone might be willing to measure the neck diameter of there spent cases out of a factory chambered gun for me? I'm curious how far off I might be.

MB
 
My cases look like that after firing in my Mauser conversion, but then again it has controlled feeding and extraction. Not one hiccup after 100 rounds.

I'm now in the process of converting a Rem 700 to take the same round and modifying the bolt as I write this. We shall see how it feeds with a push feed. More to come.
 
I've been getting stuck cases in my Robinson XCR when I use some of the newer surplus (about '84 vintage, comes packed in plastic). I notice that the primers are quite flattened, which suggest some higher pressures, ( the newer stuff is about 200 fps faster (around 2500 fps) than the older stuff in the blue boxes, and that there is usually a bit of a ring around the base of the cartridge. I suspect the case is bulging ever so slightly, and after the chamber gets a bit of carbon buildup it starts sticking. Since the XCR chamber is probably somewhat tighter than the SKS chambers, :) I guess the only thing to do is clean the chamber more often, which seems to work. I don't know if honing the chamber would be the answer, you probably know better than I.

Nice job, btw.
 
If your wanting a scoped enfield to work on that is nowhere near its former glory I have one thats sporterized that i would gladly lend to you for your experiments. or you can buy it for a nominal fee :evil:
its got a 9-40 i think so nothing fancy and i havent shot it as much as i would have liked to because of the cost of the ammo...
 
Yup. The ability to shoot cheap ammo from a Lee Enfield is very appealing. .303 British is so expensive I keep it in a case 'For Display Only. Do not Use'.
 
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