New project: Enfield No. 4 mk1

[longshooter99]

This article may need to be placed under revolvers so I apologize if its in the wrong place. A few years ago we were helping my grandmother move and we found an old sporterized Lee Enfield No. 4 mk 1 locked under the basement staircase. When I say sporterized, i mean the barrel and stock had simply been cut shorter and the front sights had been replaced with a front ramp sight. Everything else had been left original and all the serials match. It looks like it was made in 1945 but i'm not sure where. It's in decent shape, except the barrel is fairly rusty inside (it sat there for 30 years she said) and my local smith said he could possibly clean it up though may be costly. A few weeks ago i read another article describing how in India some Enfields are rebarreled as single shot .410s, and if something chambers a .410 it'll chamber a .45 long colt. Now, i was wondering if you could redo this old relic into a .45 long colt,could it be done into something with more punch, like a .454 casull? or is that asking too much with the high working pressures of the casull?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

First of all, I'd clean the barrel myself -- no need to pay someone to do it.

Then I'd shoot it. If it shoots well enough (say 3" groups at 100 yards) I'd leave it alone.

If you're going to rebarrel it, why not rebarrel it in .303? That's what it was designed for, and .303 is a better rifle cartridge than .45 Colt or .454 Casul. A plus is that your .303s will feed through the magazine. With .45 Colt or .454 Casul you'll only have a single-shot rifle.

 

[longshooter99]

Yeah if i do anything with it, it'll probably stay as a .303 as it would fit in nicely with my Kar98k, mosin and 1903 springfield. I seem to have an odd fascination with using handgun rounds in rifles and having something no one else has heard of

 

[Gunnerboy]

Forget the negative nancys on here, if you got the money DO IT!

 

[longshooter99]

We'll if I've done my homework right, the .303 british cartidge has the same diameter as the .410 (and thus the .45 colt and .454 casull). Now, the .303 was originally a blackpowder cartridge I believe and had a working pressure of 49k psi. The 45 colt is far milder with its psi in the mid teens. Now the casull has a pressure of 65,000 so while getting a new barrel would be easy, would the action sustain it?

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The .454 Casul would definitely have to be downloaded to equal "Ruger Only" .45 Colt pressures. While the action might blow up at 65,000 PSI what is more likely is bolt lug setback, increasing the headspace, so that sooner or later you would have a ruptured case -- which would probably wreck the rifle.

 

[303tom]

It`s your rifle, do what you want. Here check these guys out........http://www.specialinterestarms.com/index.php?page=home

 

[longshooter99]

Now those are some interesting conversions tom, as i especially like their 7.62x39 conversion kit, maybe i could get the Mrs. to shoot something like that since the biggest gun she likes is her lil .410