Slugged a No4MK1

Well I'm digging up bones here because another #4-1 made it to my place, buddy wants a scope on it and new wood, preferrably synthetic. It happens to be a Long Branch that is sporterized/bubba-ized and came from the same souce as the other I think.

The bolt wouldn't close, hmmm... head stamped 3, hmmm fit fine in mine :D. But won't eject, figures.

So my head and/or bolt works in the long branch and vise versa. Are they supposed to be the same, meaning can I swap them if the headspace ends up OK. Got to get to bed, don't have time to tinker right now.

The longbranch needs a scope base but since it was sporterized by a bubba in training; what do you guys suggest for a base? And is there such a thing as synthetic furniture for the long branch?

You guys were great help last time so I'm hitting you up again.

Cheers
 
I'll second what M39A2 said...

I spent 2.5 hours with Kevin from Dycor tonight, and he made my No4/No5 conversion rifle go from a junker with a ton of problems, to a great start on a great rifle...

He is a wealth of info and parts.

Call him ASAP.

BTW, if your buddy wants to cheap out on the scope base I have one that came off my rifle avalible DIRT cheap... However, I offered it to Kevin, and he wouldn't even take it for free...

Caveat Emptor...
 
"...can I swap them if the headspace ends up OK..." If you use proper headspace guages(no bits of paper, shims, empty cases, ouija boards, etc) and the bolt will not close on a No-Go or a Field, you're fine. Then just take the extractor off your old bolt head and put it on the new one. Mind you, if the barrel mikes at .320", you'd be wasting your time. The barrel is shot out.
 
Not necessarily shot out, but definitly over spec. I'm guessing wartime 2 groove British manufacture. I don't believe they were as interested ,at the time, in holding to manufacturing tolerances at the expense of slowing down production. I have noticed some fairly crude examples compared to the North American product.

John S.
 
PEI ROB said:
The slug came through with fairly good consistancy and emerged at .3035" and .320".

Looong chamber btw, kind of freaked me out a little when I checked the first piece of brass. The bright ring at the web looked as if the brass stretched and started to fissure. Kind of like a piece of brass after being flexed too much. It was just the rough chamber making marks in it but the shoulder blowing ahead .0365" made me stop and check things out. For fun, I sectioned a piece of brass and it is fine even with the .0055" chamber stretch.

What diameter projectile should I go with in this two small groove?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Boys I'm not sure about his headspacing, but I can tell you that his barrel seems right on the money. It sounds to me like you have a Savage No.4 in 2 groove rifling. And if that's the case, the lands and grooves are sort of reversed. But .303" is right on the money for your lands. .320" isn't too bad for the grooves in that kind of rifle, since the vast majority of the barrel is .303". The two little grooves basically just cut into the bullet and impart a spin on it. With regards to the headspacing, pehaps another boltface may clear that up. Having said that, I've always hated 2 groove rifling. Can you imagine what that does for pressures shooting a .312" bullet down a .303" bore. That's almost as bad as shooting 45 cal. bullets out of a .44 mag.:eek: I heard someone suggest using .323" or .321" bullets, SWEET GOD TONIGHT MAN, DON'T DO IT! Anyway, 2 groove rifling is very unique and must never be confused or compared with standard 4 or 5 groove Enfield rifling.
 
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