parts bin mountain rifle build

Evanguy

Evanguy

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so this rifle has been around the block, so to say, I got it as a sporter no5mk1, then I restored it, then I re barreled it to 44-40 and now I'm turning it into a light weight mountain rifle I hope to take goat hunting some year.

its has a AG42 barrel on it, chambered in 6.5x55. I lightened up some extra no 4 parts I had sitting around (trigger, sear, mag release and trigger guard) and got them quite a bit lighter then the no5 parts (half the weight)
I'm going for a max of 6.5 pounds with the scope and mount. I don't have the butt stock finished, but ill be using a no4 butt stock and lightening it quite a bit in the same was the no5's were but a bit more and ill use a thin aluminum butt plate
with the no5 butt stock it still is below 6 pounds. so I figure 5.5 is doable but I don't want to ruin any no5 parts in this process.

the barrel is attached to the receiver with a barrel nut I made of 4140, its m20x1 id and 14x1" 55* od, the barrel threads to a shoulder in the nut and the nut then threads to a shoulder it self.

I plan to load 140gr bullets for 2500fps, I not sure what bullets ill use yet, I shoot cast in most thing I own.

right now with out the butt stock it and butt stock bolt, it weights 4 pounds 11 oz,

total cost so far was 55$ for the barrel shipped


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The conventional No. 4 butt doesn't need to be very thick, except around the inside bolt shoulder. If you are looking for more weight reductions, think about sanding out the interior of a grooved top wood.

And, I really like your Savage-style barrel nut.
 
As Kamlooky mentioned I also wish that I had the skills to do something like your project. I have a few Lee Enfield's as well and enjoy them as well as I have "assembled" some Mauser 96's in 6.5x55 and really like the caliber. Are you building the 6.5x55 on a Lee Enfield for any particular reason?
 
Thanks guys, I work as a manual machinist at work, normally I run a mill but use the lath quite often still.

the barrel channel of both the fore stock and top hand guard, were widened quite a bit and lightened as well, the barrel is free floated by about .250" all the way around it. the fore stock weights 7.5oz and the top wood weighs 2.0oz
I do plan to lighten up the no4 butt stock quite a bit and also drill out a no4 buttstock bolt to hollow like the no5 but ill make it lighter.

and as for why I'm using a Lee Enfield receiver to build this, well I'm pretty obsessed with lee metford/enfields, I collect them, restore them, I have also rebarreled quite a few sporters I have, from lee metford's to no5's. I have quite a list of odd caliber lee receiver builds. and for this build, I wanted to use a no4 or 5 receiver due to it being known as stronger the previous receivers and also able to handle 308 loads all day, I figured it would give me a little more leeway when reloading for this rifle.

and for head space, I used the shoulder on the barrel location to get it pretty close. its m20x1 so every turn is 1mm, I left it long and I use clay to check the head space and I had 2mm head space so I moved the shoulder ahead 1.80mm and played with bold heads after that. I mostly use rimmed shells in other projects so its pretty easy to then. I just thread the barrel into the inner receiver ring and change bolt heads as needed.
 
Anyone want to give me a few susgestions as to what bullets i should try in this.i normaly shoot cast and im pretty unsure if the makeup and types of jacketed bullets. Im looking to shoot goats from 0 to 300m and a muzzle velcity of 2500fps. So at 300m thats about 2000fps

Im thinking 140gr but id be open to 120 through to 160gr.
 
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For 300 yards I would try 130 and 140 gr bullets.

The #4 action will shoot a vertical group because of the action/bolt flex. It is important that you note and calibrate the king screw torque. The zero can shift with different settings, so go back to the same torque each time. If it is not pillar bedded, 25 is about right.

Try your bullets in 0.3 gr increments and look for the group that has the least vertical. That is the one you want.

Also, try to test at 200 or 300, so you can see the results of the rifle's compensation at the distance that matters. 100 yards with a #4 can be misleading.
 
After owning a marlin 1894, ruger 77/357, Rossi 92, all in 357 magnum I wonder if it's possible to do this on an enfield build.
 
Ganderite, thanks for the info that should help me out, i would have been doing the shooting at 100m as i can do it in my yard, ill take it out somewhere i can get out to 300m

the 6.5x55 OAL is only 0.075" longer then 303 british and they do fit into the mag. i need to modify the feel lips to get the 6.5 to feed from it though but it should work. for other rounds like the .357 im not sure, all my pistol cartage build are single shots.

so i did some work on the butt stock today, i just got it light enough to meet the goal of 5.5 pounds, no scope or mount.its hollowed out some and also reshaped and thinned out. i didnt finish the butt plate yet but its white hdpe plate 4 mm thick and bring the total weight to 5 pounds 8oz. it is 36.25" long and has a lOP of 12.5"

it is still. Pretty well balanced. Feels s bit nose heavy though. And balances under the bolyhead.but it points nicely. you can deffently feel all the weight is in the receiver/knox form area of the gun. The mag loaded may change all of that though.

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Are you putting a scope on it? What mounts or front site will you use?

Cool build BTW, I like,the looks of the Parker hale sporter style,butt stocks more but I like the direction your taking this
 
I was furst thinking ill use a plactic stock on it when i started this build but after weighting a sporter front wood i realized i wil be able to get away with using wood and still making my weight goal. Im not sure what an ATI stock weights but this wooden one for all 3 pieces is 19.5oz
And if i dropped the hand guard, barel band and ring id save 2.5oz but i like the look of the 3 piece stock set.

And ill be using a scope on this rifle. Im goinng to make a no D&T mount for it and keep it as light as possible. I have 16oz to work with. I need a mount, rings and a fixed (probably 6x) power scope

I built this rifle after reading the whole " mountian hunting thread" and since reading that my goal is to hunt in the rockies in the next few years. I went with the light weight rifle so i had a goal to work to wards. Its to easy to just rebarrel a rifle. And i didnt want to just put the 303 barrep back on because then its not a project its just a regualr no5 lee enfield and if i was using a regular old lee enfield id be using a commercial CLLE or a commercial lee metford II for cool factor.
 
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So i tweeked the feed lips on the mag, only the rear ones had to be closed up about 1mm each side to hold the 6.5x55 cases. they feed just fine in the rifle, just using the effort you would in a normal 303 lee enfield, cycles and ejects perfectly, although if i dropped a loaded mag on the ground id bet the top left bullet would pop out. if the right bullet is on the top, it would be fine.

i added a pic of some of the lightening i did on the no4 receiver parts. i shaved their combined weight in half.

i have test fired this rifle,[string, bench, vice and a large tree] it went well, but it was a big hard getting the bolt to open, it was still 2 finger lift, but stiff to get it to start lifting, and extraction was very much normal. the primers looked like they flows into my firing pin hole a little. ill admit the head space was a bit tight, hard to close the bolt with a 0.001" shim on the back of the x55 case, with no shim there was resistance but not very much, the next bolt head i have that clocks within the 8 degrees past the lug gives the rifle 0.015" head space, ill get another no1 bolt head to try. In the mean time I think I may pull the bullets and change the powder out for something else making a known min load, just to try the rifle out before using the brass and buying bullets to develop a load for this gun

[im not sure why the 6.5 bullet looks odd shaped in the first pic, it is perfectly normal looking in person.]

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I like how you lightened those components, any thought to removing material off the section of the action that the butt stock bolts too? big chunk of metal right there. I've seen some conversions which remove it in pics on the web, and just use a conventional one piece stock.
 
Well the receiver and bolt are part of a numbers matching restored sporter. So i didnt want to do anything to the no5 parts. The parts i did lighten were missmatched no4 parts. If i had used a no4 receiver i would have lightened the receiver and also the bolt too. The butt stock bolt on a no5 is made of magnesium and is also hollow is 2.1 oz. I drilled out a no4 buttstock bolt the most i could (8mm hole through it) and it still weighted 2.0oz but my screw driver would slip because of the larg hole in the screw driver slot so i kept the no5 butt stock bolt.

I have owned 2 lee enfields in a 1 piece stock, one of them i converter to 3" 410 by drilling out the barrel and silver soldering a choke in the muzzle and chambering it for 410. The other i left 303 and sold it because i have way too many 303's and i never shot it much.

I just wanted to keep the no5 parts as they were so one day i can put the no5mk1 back together and ill put the 6.5x55 barrel on another sporter if it doesnt shoot well at 300m. Or if it does shoot well ill keep it x55 and just put the parts in safe keeping i have an orignal untouched no5 in my collection still.
 
I could but the problem is you have to turn and rethread the barrel. So it wont work with the barrel as it. The major diameter of the x55 barrel threads and the minor diameter of the lee enfield threads only leave .5mm metal between them. So i went with an m20x1 that leaves me 2mm between minor/major diameters.

I have made barrel nuts like this many times before. Win92 barrels dont have to be modded to fit a barrel nut. They can stay as factory and be fitted to lee enfield. I use win92 barrels on most projects due to how simple and fast it is. About 30 minutes to make the barrel nut and assemble, mark extractor location and remove to cut that. Done.
 
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