More accurate Lee Enfields

kuziwr

kuziwr

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What can I do to make my Enfields more accurate?

The one on top, my 1945 No.5 Jungle Carbine shoots ok. At 100 yards, aiming at a 18"x18" paper tarket, she just hits the bottom of the paper.

The middle one, 1944 No.4 Mk.1 shoots well from what i know, i will let you know this weekend.

The bottom one, 1917 No.1 MK.3, Well this one, it sucks. Shooting at a 4' tall peice of wood, aiming at the bottom of the wood, it just hits the top of the wood?????? wth

Is there anything i can do to make these rifles more accurate. None of them are Numbers matching. The No.4 has matching barrell, action and bolt. No mag. The No.5 has matching bolt, barrell and action. Wrong Mag.
The No.1 was formerly sporterized, barrell and action match, mag and bolt are all different as well as the stock. It is stamped "1944"

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Words have meaning.

You said they are not accurate - but the story sounds more like what you mean is that they are not zeroed.

If a rifle does not hit were you aim, it is not zeroed. This means changing the front sight to make it hit higher or lower and pushing it from side to side, to center it up. This is easy to do.

If it shoots where you aim, but the group is big, then you have an accuracy issue. Making a Lee Enfiled accurate is a secret science/art that only a few know and even fewer are authorized to pass on. It involves wooden shims, special chants and killing a cat during the right phase of he moon.

I hope you have a rifle zero problem,.
 
Check with Marstar and Districtcorp, or at a gunshow. usually a guy there with a handful of them.

If gun shoots low, you need a lower sight. It would be a real good idea to try to buy one of each different height you can find (other than the ones you have in the rifles).

You should be able to se a number stamped on the blade.

I think the #1 and #4 (and #5) use the same blades. If I am wrong someone will correct me.
 
If you truly have a wandering zero problem, go to the "milsurp knowledge Library" site at the banner on the left, top of the page. There is a description on how to bed the fore end properly. It really isn't all that involved to overhaul a fore end and well worth the effort. It's a lot of fun if you're really into it. Check the gap between the butt socket and fore end. There shouldn't be any gap, it should be snug. Also make sure the "king screw" at the front of the magazine is tight and has its spacer. Not to tight though, you will just strip the threads.
 
Seeing that the No.1 was restocked/desporterized, there might be way to much pressure on the barrel from the forend. I remember when I did my first resto the difference in height between where the receiver was and the barrel was bedded in the forearm was monstrous. When tightening the king screw I could feel the barrel flexing as the rest of the rifle was being drawn into the stock. This would cause it to shoot very high. If you loosen off the screw see if your action springs out of the stock as the pressure on the barrel is relieved. Clear as mud?
 
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I had no idea that would cause a wandering zero, I hope thats the problem because when I put the stocks on, i allways did them up nice and tight so there wouldnt be any rattling. Thanks Alot! :D
 
The barrel is supposed to rest on the front half of the stock in the No. 1, enough that it can be lifted off but it snaps back down against the stock when let go. The barrel shouldn't bend when the screw is tightened.

Also, you can tweak the harmonics of the barrel in two places:

1) the spring loaded plunger in the nose cap
2) adjusting tension on the spring loaded mid band which can adjust downward pressure on the barrel along the forearm.

I did these tweaks on my first rifle and it shot great, but it took me many hours to get it right.

Cheers
 
Spring loaded plunger in the nose cap? I must have missed that piece. When I replaced all the pieces of the no.1 the only thing i bought was the nose cap. Could you send me some pics or a refrence for that part? because im almost sure mine dosn't have that???
 
some of us who make them accurate are cat lovers; we would NEVER kioll a cat, no matter what phase of the Moon. Personally, I prefer human sacrifices in this regard, preferably cute redheaded females.

as to stocking-up an SMLE, you want the action tight to the wood, the chamber tight, the rest of the barrel floated. fix The Damned Crack and cut back the muzzle reinforce to 1 inch. you then adjust your vertical zero with the Magpie Screw. works.

five bucks' worth of Acra-Glas can do a lot.
 
 
parts 3, 4 and 51 will affect the barrel by tightening or loosening the screw to "tune the barrel, and as pointed out 44 and 45 are the plunger parts in the nosecap. I cannot really remember exactly where I got the informatin for bedding the SMLE forend, but it shout be out there somewhere. These thing worked for me, but as was hinted at above, there is some black magic involved in bedding the No.1, so your results may vary immensely. Take your time! Just shave a bit off at a time. You will be taking apart and reassembling the rifle several dozen times to tweak the bedding, and it's tedious.... there are a lot more parts to take off on a No.1 than an No.4
 
You could try shellac bedding the rifle if you don't want to go the epoxy route, it was used by Australian and New Zealand shooters for years in competition rifles as a way of getting around the rules.

It's easy to do and can be removed at any time without any harm to the wood. The only drawback is that it is not as durable as regular bedding using epoxy/polyester resins and will not stand up if you disassemble the rifle on a regular basis, it can be easily repaired however.

The Recent thread on fluxes reminded me of a rifle bedding trick learned from the Kiwis at the 1979 Palma Matches at Trentham (Upper Hutt), New Zeland.

Flake Rosin, dissolved in alcohol unti it is a syrup, is handy substitute for epoxy bedding of actions to stocks, and has several advantages over epoxy. (Dissolved rosin, of course, is nothing more or less than old-time furniture glue.)

It works very well, particularly with wood stocks. It will not fill large gaps like epoxy will, but works better than epoxy where a fairly close fit already exists.

To use it, simply pour some dissolved rosin into the area of the stock you want to bed, and assemble the barreled action to the stock. Wait overnight for it to thoroughly dry before disassembling or shooting the rifle.

The advantages are:

- No relase agent is required. To disassemble the rifle, simply hit the bottom of the barrel a good whack with the flat of your hand. Most Kiwi and Aussie shooters I knew did not disassemble their rifles between shoots, because doing so broke the bond between stock and rifle. They were essentially shooting "glue-ins", with the advantage that they were easily "unglued".

- The resin is thin enough to easily penetrate wood some distance and strengthen the area under the bedding. It shrinks VERY little and fills every pore of the metal/wood it touches...producing a good bond unless the action is really highly polished.

- Each time the rifle is disassembled, a thin "paint" coat of resin can be reapplied to the existing bedded area. It will "melt" the surface of the resin already in place, so the bedding doesn't get thicker....it just re-adheres to the action as it dries.

- Available at real hardware stores as "flake resin" or "flake glue" (make sure you don't get some modern, compounded substance), this stuff is CHEAP. Enough for seventy-seven rifles will cost you a few bucks.

The Kiwis/Aussies considered this one of their "accuracy secrets" for high-power competition. Maybe it will work for you.....
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I have used this method on Enfields/Mosins/Mausers and it works pretty well. Flake rosin is just flake shellac you just don't mix in as much alcohol as if you were going to re-finish wood. Hide glue also works pretty well, you can buy both of them from Lee Valley Tools.
 
You can easily tune your trigger as well. Almost too easily, so really take care with this. GO SLOW!!!!!

Take your bolt out, and on the bottom, you will see a kind of lug that the trigger sear rests against when your rifle is in the cocked position. Basically if you want to lighten up the trigger pull, you can stone the angle down on this piece so that the sear has less of an angle to fight againts as you squeeze the trigger, i.e. it slips off the lug easier(or with less pressure from your trigger finger).

Take the bolt out.. look at the bottom of the bolt, look back inside the receiver, squeeze the trigger and watch the mechanism moves and it will all make sense. It's always good to know how this #### works even if you never do anything to your guns. Knowledge is good.

Knife sharpening stones will work for this procedure. Just make sure there is a fine grit for the finish up.

But I cannot stress this enough!! Go slowly and keep trying the end result in increments over and over. It takes a lot less to get the desired results than you might imagine. And if you go too far.. then you have ruined your rifle. It takes about 5 seconds to put a #4 bolt in, or take it out for that matter.. so there is no excuse!! What's too far? If you are able to bang the butt of the gun on the ground in the cocked position and it "fires" (you are trying this unloaded.. of course) then you have been careless and overdone it. Just don't let it come to this. I have an awesome 3 lb. pull and it has made a big difference in my shooting. It was aleady a good trigger but now it is superb!!
 
The Jungle carbine was not adopted to replace the No.4, because of a wondering zero.
Check the Enfield, and target web sites for accuracy suggestions.
 
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