Enfield stripper clips

L

Lord Grey Boots

New member
Folks,

I have a 303 Gibbs Extreme Quest Carbine. I am trying to use some .303 enfield stripper clips to load them. These are as new condition stripper clips, with the rounds loaded correctly (3 up, 2 down).

So, the clips are still very tight, and I can't slide the rounds out and into the magazine.

Even just trying to remove the rounds directly from the clip is very difficult.

Any ideas?
 
Hey Gebooth,

I have never seen stripper clips for the 303 British, and I would not mind having a few. I am sorry that I have no idea of what you are describing with three up and two down. All the stripper clips I have seen are usually five or ten rounds to a clip, and you stick the clip in the loading slot and push the rounds down. I am just curious enough to want to know what you are describing. I will keep an eye on this thread to see what I can learn. By the way, if you have any extra 303 clips you would care to sell or trade, please let me know by E-Mail or whatever. I have an overabundance of SKS ten round stripper clips that I would be happy to trade.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile
 
Try bending the retaining lip on the clip slightly to loosen them. Or, as I would recommend, just abandon the idea of using stripper clips for .303! They really don't work that well for fast loading, and you're in trouble if you get the rims crossed in the magazine - you'll have to pull back the bolt & pluck out the offending rounds with your fingers. The only way to avoid this is to load the rounds one by one. Get you some loop style retainers to carry your extra rounds.

Rimmed cartridges + stripper clips = bad.
 
I would guess that your 3 up, 2 down is backwards. Try 3 down, 2 up. I can reliably load 5 rounds with clips, but will always get locked rims with the last couple of cartridges.
 
David,

The 3 down, 2 up (or vice versa) means the orientation of the rims. In order to prevent jamming in the magazine, when loading from strippers the rounds have to be oriented in a very specific way. If they're not, the rims will overlap in the magazine and cause a jam.

If you have five rounds sitting up right in a row on a table in front of you, the first, third, and fifth rounds (the "down" rounds) would be sitting on the table, and the second and fourth (the "up" rounds) would be sitting on the rims of the other three.

If loaded into the strippers properly, the rims orient themselves when they go into the magazine, and problems from rims overlapping are VERY rare.
 
When properly loaded Enfield striper clips work just fine. I use them all the time.

You need to polish the interior of the clips with some emery cloth or steel wool. That is what the Brits used to do. Especially if they are parkerized! That will smooth things up considerably and should allow for proper feeding.
 
I just went thru this song and dance. What I did was place a deep-well socket lenthwise onto the clip opening [3/8" may work] then, place into a vise and slowly bend the sides of the clip. Be sure and wear eye protection because if the spring steel were to break, you could have a dangerous projectile; you should always wear goggles when using such tools anyway.
I bent mine such that they barely hold the rounds in place. Also, as posted above, bend the end things out if needed and clean the interior of the clip. True, these don't work as well as a Mauser stripper system. One thing that helps: when pushing down with thumb also lift up on tip of top cartrided with index finger. This will keep the cartridges from getting into a bind in the clip and also put needed pressure on the back of the cartridges where it is needed. Good luck!
 
Enfield strippers work very well in all my Enfields. There are 2 types, 4 holers and 5 holers (from the holes in the sides). The 5 holers are WW2 vintage and seem to be smoother and are looser (age?).

I always oriented my sounds to have the lowest round (first in mag) with all the following in front of the rim of the 1 below. Never a problem in No.1MkIII, No.4Mk1, or No.3Mk1* (P-14). It was 100% reliable.

I do not know if that is the "official" king's own method, but it worked.:)
 
I've bought a few of the 1960's bandoliers of milsurp .303 that were all packed in clips.

The cases were arranged in the clips in such a way as to resemble a stack of quarters that had fallen over...."stepped" if you will, one atop the other.

I've tried the "two up" and "three up" but this "stack" style seems to work the best in my # 4 MK1*

FWIW, the Gibbs refurbs are often plated with some chrome-like stuff that doesn't stay on there very long. The faux plating interferes with the action of the bolt and mag, and may also be part of your prob if present.
 
The 3 down, 2 up loading is the official British Military procedure, and it works. I really do not know why it works, but it does work. Consider this: If you need a stripper clip to load your rifle in battle, you do not have time to look at the loaded clip and determine which end to stick in the rifle.
 
gebooth: Mike Irwin and zanthope have given you the two proper ways to load the .303 Enfield. Mike's advice on loading the stripper clips is correct and zanthope's "stepped" method is also correct ... but not for strippers. If you are loading individual rounds directly into the magazine, then you load each round "stepped", one in front of the other. As Chuck R points out, the 3 down, 2 up method which Mike describes is the official and time-tested method.

Using stripper clips is something that takes practice to do correctly. But, once learned, it is amazing how fast you can load a rifle using them! For more information on all things Enfield, try this website:
http://www.gunandknife.com/cgi-bin/boards/enfconfig.pl
 
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