No.4 Mk.1 Ammo Problems

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MattE93

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I took out my new to me No.4 Mk.1 Saturday with LVE bullets and every shot key holed. Upon measuring the bullet diameter they turned out to be closer to .308 diameter, so I chalked up the key holing to undersized bullets. Bought some PPU FMJBT and took it to the range tonight, well again about %70 key holes. I then shot S+B and Greek Surplus, neither of which had a single key hole.

Is my Lee Enfield just one of those ones that doesn’t like boat tail bullets? FYI it is a 5 groove barrel.
 
I have a two-groove savage No4Mk1*, if i put anything boattail down the tube I get key holes.
If you have 5-groove, it has to be the diameter of the bullets, or lack of rifling. Thats the only info I could dig up when searching for a reason for my problem.
I think someone also mentioned a damaged muzzle in another thread. Maybe that could be the issue throwing most of your shots?
 
If it's not key holding every type of ammo, it must have something to do with those particular types - be it undersized bullets, boat tail bullets, etc.

If you've found S&B works, then that'll be what you'll have to use out of her (or buy a few more types and see what she does).
 
There was a time, several decades back, when CIL made bullet diameters from .308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315 and 318.

There was obviously a demand for them. They came in green and white paper boxes of 50 bullets in red plastic containers with the noses pointed up and a neat little niche for each bullet.

I had an old Lithgow MkI that was in excellent condition, inside and out but it had a .317 bore diameter. It shot the .318 diameter bullets very well.

The only diameters available now from bullet manufacturers are . 308, .310, .312 and .318 which are made for the original 8mm Mauser round.

To bad because a lot of rifles which would have been capable of decent accuracy with hand loads were relegated to closets, dumpsters, garden stakes etc because of poor accuracy issues.
 
It would suggest to me that your rifle has been extensively fired with cordite loads. These erode the throat and bore and make shooting boat tailed bullets....unpredictable. Switch to flat based bullets in the 174-200 grain range and you'll be rocking again.

PS - reload, using neck dies - you won't save a red cent, but you'll shoot a heck of a lot more and every round will be more satisfying.
 
PPU is known to key hole. Has the barrel been cut and re crowned? How is the rifling? I shot some cast .312 loaded down and they key holed in my 22" EAL and shot somewhat accurate on my 26" pattern 14. I guess it needed those extra 4"s to stabilize. You would expect the opposite to happen when loading down. I could not confirm my findings because on that day, I did not bring any of my Ross M10s, No 1s, No 4s or Winchesters.
 
It is not cut down or re crowned. The crown looks good to me and rifling appears strong. I’m guessing it is the throat erosion issue. Greek surplus and S+B had zero issues. I think I’ll start reloading with .312 flat base bullets.
 
Try slugging the barrel and if possible a chamber casting. I cast bullets and find I can get any size and shape mould to fit whatever my barrel calls for after slugging it. A chamber cast may give you an idea of any throat erosion. I also powder coat and gas check flat base bullets and have had good result. But that's another story.
 
MattE93 said:
It is not cut down or re crowned. The crown looks good to me and rifling appears strong. I’m guessing it is the throat erosion issue. Greek surplus and S+B had zero issues. I think I’ll start reloading with .312 flat base bullets.
Click to expand...

That should do it - also, if you're keyholing at 100, try - and I get that this sounds weird - shooting at 200, I've seen LE's where the bullets wouldn't stabilize between 0 and 100 but at 200 and out to 400-500 were good.
 
I was currently only shooting at 25, so maybe I haven’t given them enough room to stabilize. The PPU didn’t provide as bad of keyholes as the LVE did
 
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