lee enfield cartridge question...

pointandshoot

pointandshoot

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ok, this may be an easy or stupid question but here it goes...so i just picked up a lee enfield no4 mark 1 and shot it for the first time today. well my question is is it common for the spent cartridge to be a slightly different shape then before its fired mainly where it necks down to the bullet? i can try to post pics later, but before the cartridge is fired the taper is closer to the primer, but after its fired the taper is slightly pushed down maybe a 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch. nothing major but this doesn't happen at all with my 30-06. i'm using 303 british federal loads. is this normal, or am i doing something to hurt the gun? any input would be great. thanks
 
pointandshoot said:
ok, this may be an easy or stupid question but here it goes...so i just picked up a lee enfield no4 mark 1 and shot it for the first time today. well my question is is it common for the spent cartridge to be a slightly different shape then before its fired mainly where it necks down to the bullet? i can try to post pics later, but before the cartridge is fired the taper is closer to the primer, but after its fired the taper is slightly pushed down maybe a 1/16 or 1/8 of an inch. nothing major but this doesn't happen at all with my 30-06. i'm using 303 british federal loads. is this normal, or am i doing something to hurt the gun? any input would be great. thanks
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You should always have an older firearm checked for headspacing pointandshoot before you try it out. However it is perfectly normal in many milsurps, especially .303 British to have the case shoulders blown forward upon firing. The chambers on many of these rifles were cut very large to accomidate different manufactures ammo tollerances, and dirty ammo. The 303 is a rimmed cartridge, therefore it headspaces on the rim and not the case shoulder so accuracy would not be greatly affected by reaming the chambers out to such a degree. But it does make for interesting fired brass;)
 
You should have the headspace checked on any Lee-Enfield. You have no idea if, at sometime the last 50 to 60 years, some twit changed the bolt head or how the rifle was assembled. Thousands have been assembled out of parts bins with zero QC. Not even checking the headspace to ensure the rifle is safe to shoot.
No. 4 chambers were cut 'generously' to allow for feeding when dirty in combat. The ammo manufacturing tolerance had nothing to do with it. However, if you're speaking of the neck being lengthened by 1/16" to 1/8", that is far too much. Get the headspace checked and try some different ammo.
Federal brass is known for being soft. Not that it's unsafe to use, though.
 
sunray said:
You should have the headspace checked on any Lee-Enfield. You have no idea if, at sometime the last 50 to 60 years, some twit changed the bolt head or how the rifle was assembled. Thousands have been assembled out of parts bins with zero QC. Not even checking the headspace to ensure the rifle is safe to shoot.
No. 4 chambers were cut 'generously' to allow for feeding when dirty in combat. The ammo manufacturing tolerance had nothing to do with it. However, if you're speaking of the neck being lengthened by 1/16" to 1/8", that is far too much. Get the headspace checked and try some different ammo.
Federal brass is known for being soft. Not that it's unsafe to use, though.
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Aside from the dirty ammo thing sunray, I thought that there was some issue with ammo tolerances from some countries as well? I maybe wrong on that.
 
"...from some countries..." Maybe India or Pakistan, but milspec was milspec. Headspace is a manufacturing tolerance that allows for different ammo maker's ammo to be used in all rifles/firearms in a particular chambering.
 
sunray said:
"...from some countries..." Maybe India or Pakistan, but milspec was milspec. Headspace is a manufacturing tolerance that allows for different ammo maker's ammo to be used in all rifles/firearms in a particular chambering.
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Ok sunray, I can see where you are coming from. You misunderstood my original post and confused headspacing with large dimention chambering. I already pointed out to pointandshoot that all milsurps should have there headspacing checked before firing and that large chambers were common on a lot of milsurps, especially the 303 to account for dirty ammo and different tollerances. Pehaps you misunderstood me ;) I'm aware that headspacing is headspacing and that's a given, it's the chambers that are oversized. :cheers: Back to the 1/16 to 1/8 of an inch pointandshoot, that does seem excessive, tread lightly there grasshopper. Although there was a post here a few months back showing a 303 with the case shoulders blown so far forward that I thought it was an Epps Improved! Apparently the headspacing was fine and someone commented on the fact that this was commonplace, to have chambers grossly oversized.
 
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oversized chambers in enfields may still headspace fine, ammo may show signs of a lot of streaching around the neck and sholders. If the streaching is around the base above the web (about 3/4" up) then you have other problems

if your relaoding and have a gererous chamber neck size only, and your brass will last way longer.
 
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