Looking to check headspace on my enfield

darrensousa

darrensousa

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Heya,

I bought my first No 4 Mk 1* on the forum and am trying to find a 303B headspace gauge for sale in Canada, not really having any luck.

Anyone have one I can borrow? Or a trick that I can do to make sure I am within safe limits?
I live in south western ontario (Burlington)

Cheers,

Darren
 
Go is .064" and no go is .067" according to the gauges I have.

If you have access to or know someone with a lathe, you could make a couple gauges.

To be real cheap, you could also use a casing and just add thin shims to the head to get these numbers and use that as a headspace gauge. It's a bit ghetto, but it can work.
 
If you bought one Enfield, you're going to buy more, guaranteed. They're addicting.

Okie gauges makes accurate, simple headspace gauges, they ship to Canada. I think for go, no-go and field it was $25-30 bucks plus $10 for shipping.

In reality, all you need is a field gauge
 
I got mine from blaser.306, a cgn member. His are ground discs with a slot for the extractor. This way, you don't have to remove the extractor, unless you have to be very precise. You can measure case rims to find one that can act as a go guage. My thought is that you only need a no-go. The bolt shouldn't close on a no-go, or perhaps with a bit of resistance. If it closes easily on a no-go, then a new bolt head is in order. This is only applicable to the no. 4 and 5. If your SMLE has excessive headspace, slightly advanced reloading is required.
BTW, blaser's guages only work on my Lee- Enfields. They are a hair too large for my Ruger no. 1 and Martini.
 
darrensousa said:
a trick that I can do to make sure I am within safe limits?


Cheers,

Darren
Click to expand...

Take a primed case with no powder or bullet... fire it... how ever much the primer backs up is the approximate amount of excessive headspace... ideally all case rims would be the same thickness but they are not... so a little headspace is perfectly fine. If the primer backs up a lot (more than 10 thou) you should consult a gunsmith... or fire only factory rounds until you learn how to reload to reduce the effects of excessive headspace.
 
Bigrounds8mil said:
If you bought one Enfield, you're going to buy more, guaranteed. They're addicting.

Okie gauges makes accurate, simple headspace gauges, they ship to Canada. I think for go, no-go and field it was $25-30 bucks plus $10 for shipping.

In reality, all you need is a field gauge
Click to expand...

I`ve also used Okie Gauges with success, but a quick Google search leads to a US forum post that says the owner may have passed away. Unfortunate if true, as the gauges were simple, accurate, and the service was great.
 
GotHeem said:
I`ve also used Okie Gauges with success, but a quick Google search leads to a US forum post that says the owner may have passed away. Unfortunate if true, as the gauges were simple, accurate, and the service was great.
Click to expand...

I bought a set a year ago and a set of 7.62x54r, would buy again. It if that’s true he has passed that’s most unfortunate.
 
here is another way that you can check it. prime a new case with the primer proud a bit chamber it and close the bolt. when you close the bolt it will push the primer in the rest of the way, or, if you have poor headspace it wont. then you can measure how much the primer is proud, and figure it
 
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