Review: No. 4 Mk. I SMLE from J&G Sales [Updated with range report]

[s12.aaxtell]

Very nice shooting. Are you using the battle sights, or the adjustable target sights?

-Alex

 

[alemonkey]

Looks like you got a heck of a shooter. Mine is almost identical condition to yours and it's about a 4 MOA gun with handloads or quality ammo.

 

[Trebor]

There's a trick to loading the rimmed cartridges in the mag for proper feeding. You have to overlap the rims in a certain order. That could explain the problems you were having.

I can't recall the details off hand. It's been quite awhile since I've had my Enfield out to the range.

 

[essayons21]

Very nice shooting. Are you using the battle sights, or the adjustable target sights?

The rifle has the later battle sights. One for 300 yards, the other for 600.

The 300 sight was dead on, didn't get a chance to try the 600.

 

[Maj Dad]

You have to overlap the rims in a certain order.

Each cartridge is loaded with its rim in front (toward the muzzle) of the previously loaded round. Mosins require this as well, and probably any other magazine fed weapon using rimmed cartridges.

 

[Doug S]

Congrats on the new (old) rifle. I purchased mine about a year ago, for my WWII collection, and still haven't shot it yet. Your post is motivating me. I think I'll pick up a box of ammo this week.

Mine is a 1943 BSA with a mismatch bolt, and with many of the same markings you've described. I've been told its from a recent batch of Turkish imports. Seems Britain gave the Turks a batch of rifles, and for the most part they were little used. So they are turning up in pretty good condition. No FTR marks on the gun. Some say that the Beech stocks were not WWII, but I've talked to some good sources who say the British did use Beech during the course of the war. If that's true, my stock obviously didn't see much action, or it was sanded at some point. I don't think it was sanded because it has many of the manufacture stamps throughout, including the SL you mention on the buttstock.

 

[DougW]

Sweet rifle!

 

[krinko]

Just a note on British Beech stocks----
I have a 1941 BSA and a 1941 Maltby and both of them wear their original wood. I know this because both of them still show the original forestock numbering running parallel to the barrel, as well as the later variety that runs across the barrel axis.
Both of these rifles are stocked in Beech and since 1941 was first year of production for the No4 rifle...

Beech and Walnut were used side by side throughout WW2---sometimes on the same rifle---and Beech was regularly dyed to mimic Walnut, especially in the mixed wood sets.
-----krinko

 

[Lone Star]

I don't think I'd test it with cheap foreign ammo. Try Winchester or Federal or Remington, if you can find it. If the primers still pierce, you have a rifle problem, not an ammo problem. I like the shape of the Winchester bullet, which I think will shoot a little flatter, and may more resemble the shape of the MK VII load for which the rifle is sighted. However, these rifles were built for FMJ bullets, and softpoints may snag on feeding. Only in some rifles, though.

If you want to test accuracy, fire from off a bench, not prone. (If you can.)

Lone Star

 

[alemonkey]

Each cartridge is loaded with its rim in front (toward the muzzle) of the previously loaded round. Mosins require this as well, and probably any other magazine fed weapon using rimmed cartridges.

Mosins have an interrupter that holds the top cartridge in the magazine down under the round going into the mag, so it doesn't rimlock on the one being fed into the chamber. It's a quite ingenious system and it works very well. I can't feed stripper clips into an Enfield to save my life, but I can get them to work every time in a Mosin. Mosins were designed for illiterate peasants. I wonder what that says about me.

OP - with a nice shooting rifle like that you should look into a set of micrometer sights. They were standard on the WWII Enfields until they switched to the sight you have now, to save time and money. They're pretty cheap, and they're way more accurate than the "L" sight you have now. It looks like you're a good marksman, now you need the sights to take advantage of your skill.

I think I need to order a new Enfield. Mine shoots OK, but nothing like yours.

 

[essayons21]

I don't think I'd test it with cheap foreign ammo. Try Winchester or Federal or Remington, if you can find it. If the primers still pierce, you have a rifle problem, not an ammo problem. I like the shape of the Winchester bullet, which I think will shoot a little flatter, and may more resemble the shape of the MK VII load for which the rifle is sighted. However, these rifles were built for FMJ bullets, and softpoints may snag on feeding. Only in some rifles, though.

If you want to test accuracy, fire from off a bench, not prone. (If you can.)

Lone Star

The reason I am going to try Wolf is because they are known for using some of the hardest primers.

As far as accuracy, there is accuracy and then there is practical accuracy. These guns weren't shot at Germans from a bench, so I really don't care how accurate it can be locked down into a shooting vise. Its 3 MOA prone unsupported, which is more accurate than the factory standard of the time.

 

[P5 Guy]

Sellier & Belliot is fine ammo and pretty much all that I shoot thru my #4mk1 and K98k.
The pierced primer is a concern. I have had some HXP from time to time maybe you can find some of that.
As far as the Remington, Winchester offerings you'll find them to be pretty mild loadings. And pricy.