.308 Enfield 2A1

[Wyobuckaroo]

Howdy All
Just got a .308 Enfield 2A1 made in India in 1967. Thing is greasier than my brother-in-laws garage floor. Will be some time b/4 I can get it cleaned up and out to the range now. Was cheap enough, so what the heck, why not. Anyone have any experience w/ these? Give a shout.
Wyo

 

[MolonLabe416]

I have one built up as a Pseudo-Scout from Robbie at www.scoutman.com.

I don't care for Robbie's sights, so I sent it to Jim Brockman at www.brockmansrifles.com in Gooding ID. He installed one of his excellent M14 style front sights and fabricated a back sight that is attached to the charger (stripper clip in US nomenclature) guide while still allow the use of chargers.

All in all a very handy rifle.

 

[beemerb]

Stripped it and cleaned and shot it.A fine rifle for the money and a lot of fun to shoot.I have a love of old military bolts for some reason.But I still love all my semi autos too. Say I picked up two rifles from Chile in 308.First I have ever seen.Anybody else run across them?(straight bolt mausers)
Bob

 

[agony]

My Ishapore .308 sat in the safe for a LONG time. When I finally got the itch, I took it to the range. The dang forward attachment under the muzzle that contains the front-sights bunny ears and bay oattachment flew off! After tapping the barrel slightly and reinstalling screw, no flaws since.

It's a great little rifle. Quite accurate and has the smoothest milsurp actions I ever felt. One big minus is the magazine....seems somewhat unreliable with more than 5 rounds installed....needs a new spring methinks.

It would be nice to have a 'scope on it and a 5 round mag...would make a killer deer rifle.

 

[Bainx]

I never took a liking to the sights on my Ishy. I greatly prefer the peep sight on my No.4.
Still, fun to plink with.

 

[GD]

I have heard that a very high percentage of these rifles have headspace problems. Have you had yours checked?

 

[J Miller]

I got one that has all matching numbers. Made in '64 I believe.
It is fun to shoot and seems to be quite accurate. Altho I haven't taken it to the range. I used to go out into the desert and lob tracers at hills far far away. Great fun where safe to do so.
Mine has some binding in the action, but it seems to be smoothing out.
Magazine works great.
It was crammed with grease too. It took me days to completly clean the action and the stock. But it was worth it.

Stay away from Commercial ammo. It is hotter than NATO Spec ball and will loosten your rifle up fast. Buy Milsurp ammo, it's what this rifle was designed for.
When and if you reload, keep to the starting loads for the 147-150 grain bullets.
Mine goes nuts with pressure signs with commercial ammo, but is fine and dandy with NATO spec ammo and reloads of that level.

 

[Desert Dog]

My Ishy is a beautiful weapon. I took it completely down and refinished and reblued all the metal pieces, degreased and refinished all the stock work, and rebedded the barrel to the lower stock.

The barrel looks brand new, and the headspace is perfect.

She is literally a tack driver. Although not as accurate as some bolt-actions, it was a bargain...

I love this rifle. She is a beauty.

Mike

 

[Marcus]

I`ve shot several Ishys with commercial ammo and they all seemed to like it very much. No high pressure signs at all. Military rifles are generally built pretty much overkill and well tested with proof loads. The Ishys were specifically made using different steel and heat treat to handle the 7.62NATO round in large quantities and over many years. I could be wrong but I find it hard to believe that they would be so marginal that the slightly higher pressure of .308 commercial ammo would shoot them loose in any one lifetime of recreational shooting. That said I still certainly wouldn`t shoot hot handloads or Hornady Light Magnum ammo in one. Marcus

 

[critter]

Originally posted by beemerb
Stripped it and cleaned and shot it.A fine rifle for the money and a lot of fun to shoot.I have a love of old military bolts for some reason.But I still love all my semi autos too. Say I picked up two rifles from Chile in 308.First I have ever seen.Anybody else run across them?(straight bolt mausers)
Bob

I too have 2 of the Chile rifles. No expert here, but I understand they were made by Steyr between 1912-14 and sent to the Chile military. They were converted in 1962 to the 7.62 Nato round (308 win-appx) and are therefore known as Model 12/61. Mine shoot good and I enjoy them a great deal. Some conversions were supposedly done by sleving the chamber or some such and some were rebarrel jobs (said to have been redone 03 Springfield barrels). Mine were the rebarrel jobs.

I love the old military bolt guns too, especially the Mauser 98's. Have fun!

 

[fmjcafe]

I`ve got one of the Navy Arms Ishy`s and in the ammo department, I had problems with Portugese milsurp and S&B fmj. I had to tap on the bolt handle with a plastic mallet to extract the empties. I never had a problem with commercial .308.

 

[beemerb]

critter;
Thank you for the info.It is more info then I have been able to get in months of looking.
Bob

 

[Rule .308]

I bought a 2A1 from Survival Ent. a long time ago and it was/is gorgeous. The walnut stock is perfect and the metal finish, while not technically correct, is perfect. It was redone in a lighter gray, probably zinc phosphate, parkerizing. All matching and a pleasure to shoot. Although I have to admit the darn thing kicks nearly as hard as my FR-8

 

[kz900]

kz900 howdy ya,all i have been shooting these ishy,s for 15yrs you can shoot commercial ammo thru em if only you want excessive head space broken extractors and various other problems stick with 7.62 nato pressures and it will serve you well

 

[guernseyrifleman]

1895 Chilean Mauser in .308

About ten years ago I bought a Chilean Mauser Modelo 1895 that the Chileans had re-bored and re-chambered to .308 sometime in the 1960s. The rifle had a mint bore and proved to be an excellent shooter. I was told that with enough shooting the action would stretch and eventually I would be unable to open the bolt anymore. Five hundred rounds later the rifle shoots just fine.

 

[JHansenAK47]

I have heard that a very high percentage of these rifles have headspace problems. Have you had yours checked?

Not as big of a problem on the Ishy 2a rifles. A lot of those old 303 enfields were built out of parts or the bolt got seperated at some point. Though the Ishy 7.62 nato enfields usually have the original bolts and are properly headspaced.

It's a great little rifle. Quite accurate and has the smoothest milsurp actions I ever felt. One big minus is the magazine....seems somewhat unreliable with more than 5 rounds installed....needs a new spring methinks.

I couldn't find a new spring for the magazine on mine. I ended up cutting a FAL mag spring that I had gotten from DSA and it works pretty good but now it only will hold 10 rds, instead of the standard 12, with complete reliability. I could probably cut another coil but it is 100 % reliable with 10 so why fix it if it isn't broke. You can also buy replacement magazines for them. The aftermarket ones are 10 rd mags.

 

[1KPerDay]

Please note that this is a 6 year old thread before replying to the posts at the top portion of this thread. kz900 resurrected it.

 

[logjam]

My Indian 308 SMLE shoots around corners. I'm wondering if it still has a 311 barrel. I shot some military surplus rounds. It keyholed. I knew it was bad when the bullets went Bzzzzzzzzzzzz as they flew downrange.

 

[elmerfudd]

Mine shoots pretty well. I've only shot surplus through it, but it can hold 3" groups at 100 yards with South African.

 

[paintballdude902]

love mine its an awsome gun and the only time it has ever failed me was hunting whe i shot at a 9pter from 300yrds got a bit of buck fever and just started shooting huge buck with a real nice rack and a drop tine a buddy of mine shot it on the 27th of december i almost punched him lol pretty buck too bad its hangin on his wall and not mine