Headspace on Enfields

With a Headspace Gauge (rim thickness). There are three in a set, GO, FIELD and NO GO. Shouldn't close on NOGO A lot of them will close on Field Should be checked with light finger pressure only. If bolt handle won't rotate all way down without forcing it, you are good. Some gauges are marked with rim thickness. Mine are .064", .067" and .074". A lot of commercial cartridges are thinner in the rim than the military cartridges these rifles were made for.
 
bushwhacker said:
With a Headspace Gauge (rim thickness). There are three in a set, GO, FIELD and NO GO. Shouldn't close on NOGO A lot of them will close on Field Should be checked with light finger pressure only. If bolt handle won't rotate all way down without forcing it, you are good. Some gauges are marked with rim thickness. Mine are .064", .067" and .074". A lot of commercial cartridges are thinner in the rim than the military cartridges these rifles were made for.
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Unless I'm mistaken, a freshly chambered rifle should close on a "Go" gauge, but not on a "No-Go" gauge. Rifles in service would remain in service if they close on a "No-Go", but not on a "Field".

If all you want to do is determine if the headspace on a Lee Enfield is within spec, you only need a No-Go and Field Gauge, and in fact you can get away with only a Field Gauge.

While out of spec headspace is the "Great Satan" of Milsurps on the web and inspires a lot of fear here on CGN, it really only impacts brass life.

Next up - talk of o-rings and various animations on headspace.
 
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Does anyone know where I could get these gauges? I picked up my first Enfield and am considering restoring it. If i keep it as is there are a couple more I could acquire I might restore. I got hit with the Enfield bug the minute I held a friends and have always found repairing/restoring old rifles enjoyable.
 
Proper headspace guages is the only way to check it. For your purpose you only need the No-Go and a Field. Use the No-Go first, if the bolt completely closes, try the Field. If it completely closes on a Field the headspace is excessive and the rifle is unsafe to shoot. The operative word being 'Completely'. CF weapons techs didn't use the Field. Rifles that closed on a No-Go were declared unsafe and sent to be fixed if the guy didn't have any bolt heads.
Case life has absolutely nothing to do with it. "Sloppy" chambers is nonsense. Lee-Enfields have slightly oversized chambers to accomodate ammo made everywhere in The Empire.
 
And the muck dirt and mire of the trenches, a generous chamber maybe safe, but you will have brass failures after few reloads, I know of several rifles that the case comes out very banana shaped and stretched from one firing. Measure a brand new case, fire and remeasure.
 
Go and NO GO guages are what a gunsmith will use.

Headspace is good to know, but it gets way too much attention IMO.

I bought a sporterized P-17 that the seller happened to mention, after I bought it and he shipped, that he "thought" I should get checked for headspace. I took it to my smith and sure enoough, the thing would swallow a "no go" guage with three layers of masking tape on the base of the guage. My gunsmith told me to partially resize my reloads just enough so the bolt gives me a barely noticeable "crush" fit on my reloads and give it a try anyways. Well, it turns out that works just fine and it's an incredibly accurate rifle. I'm on about my sixth reloading of my batch of brass for this rifle, and they're all still going strong...
 
Northman99,

So on that note do you figure I should just take her out and fire it without testing headspace? This is my first Enfield and to be honest I've never heard the headspace conversation until I picked up parts for this the other day. My pride and joy of my collection is my grandfathers 32 special and I just cleaned it up and fired it, never thought to check anything other then condition of action and barrel prior to firing.

Thanks everyone for the input so far!
 
if your grandfather shot it, I would not worry about headspace but also would only neck size after the first firing; that should allow the shell to index or space on the shoulder for future shots and also works your brass much less. I would also anneal the brass every 4 or 5 shots

cheers mooncoon
 
Well since you asked (and I may get flamed for this), I'd go shoot it after giving it a good visual and mechanical once over.

I've had well over a dozen LE's go through my hands over the years and I've never had headspace checked on any of them. Actually the only rifle I ever had checked was the P-17, as it was clear reading between the lines from the seller, that there was an issue.
 
I was given a sandbag full of .303 brass fired in issue rifles.
While inspecting them for reloading, I found that about 20% had to be culled because of signs of incipient separations. Bear in mind that this ammunition had been fired is issue service rifles, not in who knows where it has been, who has done what to it, surplus rifles.
If there is any hint of incipient separations, pitch the brass. If it is desired to reload the cases, do the first firing with an o-ring or small elastic, and then reload as if the case were rimless.
If there are no signs of separation, great. But even then, if reloading, it is a really good idea to size no more than necessary to chamber easily and hold the bullet properly.

I have experienced complete separations with reloaded ammunition. No harm done. I have never heard of any unfortunate experiences resulting from separations in a Lee Enfield. Usually the front portion of the case is easily removed.
 
mooncoon said:
if your grandfather shot it, I would not worry about headspace but also would only neck size after the first firing; that should allow the shell to index or space on the shoulder for future shots and also works your brass much less. I would also anneal the brass every 4 or 5 shots

cheers mooncoon
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The 32 was his, the Enfield I'm questioning I bought thru auction. I want to see how it fires this weekend before I decide if I'm leaving it sportertized or if I'm going to attempt to restore her. Just was warned to check headspace prior to trying to fire, which I have never heard of before!
 
Northman999 said:
Well since you asked (and I may get flamed for this), I'd go shoot it after giving it a good visual and mechanical once over.

I've had well over a dozen LE's go through my hands over the years and I've never had headspace checked on any of them. Actually the only rifle I ever had checked was the P-17, as it was clear reading between the lines from the seller, that there was an issue.
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That is usually my route with most old rifles I acquire. But Like I said no one has ever mentioned head space to me before and I'm fairly new to the whole Enfield world i thought maybe it was a common issue or something.
 
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