SMLE Mk III* info

O

olyinaz

New member
I picked up a made-from-new/refurbished SMLE Mk III* (Australian) at the gun show today (it's lovely, the new coachwood stock from Oz is great) and I was wondering if anyone has any great Lee-Enfield web sites to recommend? Good sources for .303 ammo?

Thanks!

V/R,
Oly
 
gunboards.com has a forum on Lee Enfields. Some really smart Enfield addicts there. I learned a lot about my MK III* on that forum.
 
Enfields are wonderful rifles. I love my five. Ammo is getting harder to find. Most of the surplus is gone now. Privi is good stuff and still widely available.
Click to expand...
+1, and I'll add a couple of notes.

First, the only milsurp ammo that's widely available right now is Pakistani "POF"-stamped stuff that's notoriously prone to hangfires and duds. Hangfires don't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. It's also generally pricier than milsurp rifle ammo in other calibers, so it's more difficult to justify using it in place of commercial ammo. I avoid it, but YMMV. ;)

Second, the "Wolf Gold" .303 British ammo is Prvi Partizan, just in a different box. Buy whichever is cheaper.
 
The other problem with the POV stuff is that it is corrosive and will require you to clean the barrel with soapy water or ammonia in addition to regular cleaning. I have about 1000 rounds of it and only fire it in my beater rifle, an old 1948 Ishapore. It's got a badly pitted throat so I don't mind using the junk ammo. Hang fires can be fun, they teach you not to flinch!

I handload all my .303 these days and only neck-size fire formed cartridges. I get much better accuracy than with the commercial stuff. When I do fire commercial ammo, it is the Prvi Partizan.
 
I hear these rifles have an incredible following. I've thought about purchasing one time and again, what should i be looking for if I wanted something historically valuable and also shootable. I ask because I'm not familiar with the Pakistani or Indian production rifles, I have heard that they aren't the best in terms of value, accuracy, production value, etc. I could see how that could be, but then again the British were in India for a long while, surely they're not all crap, right?
 
I hear these rifles have an incredible following.
Click to expand...

Yup ... and then some. The longest serving battle rifle out there with few if any to match it. Try two world wars and dozens of small wars since 1945 including Korea and Malaya ... still found in the hands of Indian and Pakistani Military and Police forces and various insurgents in the Mid East and Taliban in the Ghan. The Afghans inflicted plenty of damage sniping against the Soviets with Enfield SMLE's.

Go to the Enfield forum link in my sig if you want the real heads up on these rifles from people who know them and shoot them.


I have heard that they aren't the best in terms of value, accuracy, production value, etc.
Click to expand...

Complete garbage ... talk to owner shooters who are knowledgeable collectors and you will learn different. Funny how that goes.


... surely they're not all crap, right?
Click to expand...

Of course not ... what most people are speaking to is examples that have often seen use in countless wars and then post WW2 3rd party Military and para military use - then to be sold to commercial market and further flogged and fired for 30 years with the same barrel and a complete lack of knowledgeable servicing, tuning or accurizing!

Yes, some rifles are flogged ... you are talking about wear and usage here, NOT a standard of factory production. A good condition Enfield is capable of accuracy most shooters aren't good enough to keep standard to. Most people have little or no idea how to tune or accurize the Enfield and assume that what they've got is all the rifle is capable of - after ALL it has seen and been through. This ignores every potential the rifle has and had when new from factory - the shooter is ignorant, the rifle is excellent.

Tiki.
 
Complete garbage ... talk to owner shooters who are knowledgeable collectors and you will learn different. Funny how that goes.
Click to expand...
+1. IMHO this Enfield-inferiority hogwash most often comes from 2 sources:

1) Ignorant and blatant Mauser and/or Garand snobbery, often from people who have never actually used a Lee-Enfield.

2) The old guy on the stool at the gun store. See, he bought a Lee-Enfield out of a 55-gallon drum at Joe Bob's Hardware in Doodlebug Valley, AR in 1958 and it wouldn't shoot worth a darn. Never mind that it was shot-out to begin with, that he seldom cleaned it, and that he used the butt to hammer tent stakes on his hunting trips. All Lee-Enfields must be junk! :rolleyes:
 
As you can see, the Lee-Enfield has gone from a quite decent battle rifle to an object of adoration. I have five, and I liked them better when they were just guns I could actually shoot without bowing down and sprinkling them with holy water from the Thames.

Jim
 
...surely they're not all crap, right?
Click to expand...

I think he meant the Ishapores in general. Obviously a British, Canadian, Australian or American Enfield is far from crap. The Ishapores don't have as good a reputation but I am not exactly sure why. They were built on British equipment and manufacture was supervised by the British, correct? I would guess that they are more prone to corrosive pitting, being toted around the jungle for 50 years. With any Enfield, making sure the bore is good is critical. Aside from that, just about any other part can be replaced or repaired.
 
I think he meant the Ishapores in general.
Click to expand...

The same goes for Ishapores ... there are many happy Ishapore owners over at the Enfield forum at Suprlusrifleforum.com ... do a search or talk to them. They aren't as pretty as the Australian, British, Canadian and U.S made rifles but they are great shooters in good condition and are very reliable.

Tiki.
 
Thanks much for the links and the info guys. I had a gunsmith look over mine today before taking it out to shoot and with a clean bill of health I'm really looking forward to shooting it. I'm not at all pleased that the only ammo I can find for it thus far is Remington 180gr round nose soft point hunting ammo for $30 a box (sheesh...) but I'm sure I'll eventually find some new Russian or other manufacture that will suffice for less than that. In the mean time it's good to see that my local Big 5 intends to stock .303 as a normal shelf item.

Cheers,
Oly
 
Oly,

Russian ammo is not interchangeable with .303 British. You may still need to tune and accurize your rifle - if it a Lithgow then I can vouch for that fact. I shoot out of the Lithgow Small Arms Rifle club where these rifles were factory built and tested.

Tiki.
 
Jim Keenan wrote
As you can see, the Lee-Enfield has gone from a quite decent battle rifle to an object of adoration. I have five, and I liked them better when they were just guns I could actually shoot without bowing down and sprinkling them with holy water from the Thames.
Click to expand...

While I do not consider my two to be "just guns" I don't keep them in a Museum case or Shrine either. I took a doe a few years ago with my Lend-Lease Enfield, actually a No. 4 Mk I*. It's a quite decent hunting rifle as well as a "quite decent battle rifle".
 
I've never owned a No. 4, only a MK III*, but stopped at the gunsmith's shop yesterday and while there noticed a rack of No. 4's, six or seven, and commented to the owner what great shape they appeared to be in, almost like new. He said they were Savages. I picked one up and it was NRA Excellent overall. Then I looked at the price tag, $279.95. Prices have sure gone up on these. Beautiful, beautiful rifles tho.
 
Why couldn't you guys just tell me they were crap? Now I'm going to have to get one... or two... wait how many variants are there? Damn.
 
Do you guys know much about the .308 conversions? Solid jobs, or crap?

I respect the classic rifles, but don't really care about having a pristine piece of history, so I'd love to have an SMLE that could shoot the cheaper and more easily attainable .308 (blasphemy or not).
 
Do you guys know much about the .308 conversions?

I've kicked it around once or twice on some of the other forums. Can't say on the No 4's, but I believe the working pressure for the No1 Mk III*'s run about 42,000 cup. The .308 rounds are in excess of that, I'm working from memory but I believe about 52,000 cups. The other posters seemed to think that it wasn't a big deal. I wouldn't convert my Mk III*, maybe it would stand up to the greater pressure but the .303 does anything I want it to do and am happy with it. Some others here may have a different viewpoint.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top