Which calibers are Lee Enfields convertable to?

Woodbeef

Woodbeef

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Been running into a few bubba'd LEs lately that need some work at really good prices. It's gotten to thinking about converting them to another caliber. Which calibers are easily converted? I'm thinking along the lines of something larger than 303. How hard to do were the 45-70? What about 358 Winchester? Or 35 Whelan? Any others?
 
Nearly any rimmed cartridge with a similar OAL and case head diameter will do. The trick is finding a barrel. It'd be a custom barrel in any cartridge or calibre.
 
7X57R and 8X57R work fine, and can be rebarreled using surplus barrels, hundreds of which are laying under benches all across the country. :D

30-40 Krag is another one. All of these cartridges in factory persuasion are within acceptable pressure levels for Lee-Enfields.

Ted
 
There are still people out there capable of properly reboring these old barrels. Ellwood Epps developed a whole series of wildcats based on the venerable .303 case. A similar thing happened down in upside down kangaroo land. The .303 Epps Improved is such an improvement over the old original that its almost scarey!

The worst thing about having a brand new barrel added is the veddy old British Acme thread, ...but here are still smiths and machists quite capable and willing to cut it for you.
 
skit said:
number 4s and number 3s do not have acme threads.
Click to expand...

No. 1 rifles don't either.
Offhand I cannot think of any rifle with an Acme thread on the shank.

There is also the issue of magazine feed, if a repeating rifle is desired. This can take considerable experimentation in some cases.
 
If you wanted a fun project and didn't mind going down in caliber, rebarrel to the .236 Lee Navy in a rimmed form. They take a .244 bullet and are can be formed from the .303 British.

cheers mooncoon
 
I post here some pic of mine, i REALLY don't whant to hijack the thread but i have received a lot of PM for pic, here they are and for info, i will answer all the questions on PM but not here to resect the owner of this post...
Respectfully
Sendero
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Still not finished after 2 year, only miss time but it was shooting well with the wooden stock, just ned to finish the synth. stock job... Armacoat will be the cherry on the cake...
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Don't feel that you're hi-jacking at all Sendero. I asked the question,and you answered it with pictures. Afterall why are we here anyways.......to share info with each other are we not? Must say that is one very interesting conversion. One I'd never had thought of myself.
 
Ok, thank's,Woodbeef... this is my second project out of enfield, my first one was converted in .410 gauge, i took the barrel off from a single shot old CIL shotgun, i turn it on the lathe and thread it to fit the enfield, the base rim of the .303 ammo are quite the same than the .410 there was some feeding issue from the factory .303 clip with .410 ammo in it but i sold the project before i completly finish it... i run out of time, so sometime, i have a good idea, began the project and sell it bfore it's fiished loll, for exemple, i also have on his way a 12 gauge, i have the barrel and the mag tube chrome plated in a Harley shop, the gun is a 12.5 in barrel registrated but it's not finished yet lollll
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no pathfinder, it's in 45 acp with factory 1911 clip
 
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Seen a .303/.338 rebore on a shotout origonal Rigby mauser sporter in Rifle magazine.Harold * the 236 Lee navy can be made from 220 swift never heard off using .303?
 
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.410 SS were issued to jail guards in India and used 2.5" brass cases not 3".BTW you can make 2.5 " .410 out of .303brass with .444 Marlin dies and they last forever...........Harold
 
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