Enfield conversion question.

[bigstick61]

The barrels cost that much? What kind of barrels did you use? Custom-made?

[eighteenninetytwo]

That is great info about teh wildcat calibers - I hadn't considered that - I will take a serious look at them, as my aim would be to get a 2 MOA rifle out of this (not a 6inch at 50 yards). I already have a couple of No.4's in .308, one made by the DCRA for service rifle target matches in canada and one made for a calguns member using a DCRA barrel. I know a couple of folk who have competed in england with No.4's in .223 and find them extermely accurate with iron sights. I COULD if I wanted spend less on a rem 700 in .223 but I like iron sight shooting ( and eat retards snawiches I guess). One thing is though that the Enfield, because of it's rear locking lugs system, is actually very easy to convert, new bolthead, thinner pin, new barrel and feeding device - gives hours of fun tinkering - and importantly at the end still looks like a Lee Enfield, unless i botch it entirely of course, which is not beyond the bounds of possibility.

[bigstick61]

You can get great accuracy out of a .25/303, especially with a good barrel, properly bedded action, and a good trigger. The round moves pretty good and you can get performance approaching that of the .257 Roberts.

[emcon5]

What about something like this:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/reviews2005/rlenfield/index.asp

http://www.specialinterestarms.com/index.php?page=enfield_conversions

I think a .30 cal 303 based wildcat would be interesting, keep the character of the rifle, but open up the wide variety of good .30 cal bullets available.

[jamesob]

The barrels cost that much? What kind of barrels did you use? Custom-made?

the barrel was 150 thereabout and the trigger, stock, scope and mounts made up the rest

[eighteenninetytwo]

Ok done a heap of net research. I think I'm going to do this as originally planned. conversion to .223 and lets see how it goes. I reckon that I'll be able to get a decent shooter out of it but it'll take a while to do. I will report back on the whole process - starting situation, cost, process, results etc. Thank you for all the advice (which I'm apparently ignoring but defnitiely intigruged by) wish me luck.

[gunboat]

1892 -- I for one am not a negative on your project. I have given some thought about a bolt milsurp platform for the 223 and the #4 seems to be about the best starting point.
The only info I found was by the fellow in australia, did you find other doers?
I must admit I don't think I would do the project if I did not have a lathe, etc.
Do you plan on a new barrel or reline? Have you given thought to the magazine? I think that may be the hardest problem to resolve satisfactorily.
Do keep us informed on your progress --

[eighteenninetytwo]

I read the information form the guy in Oz. Seem like the hard part is teh cration of the bolthead. But I located a gunsmith in England that makes the boltheads for the No.4 designed for .223. Without this I fear I woudl have given up. I spoke to him and he recommended a ruger mini 14 magzine fitted inside an Enfield 7.62 magazine. Fotunately I have a spare 7.62 mag with no follower, but if anyone has a 5 or 10 round mini 14 mag going spare (I think 5 would be the best), I'd be happy to hear from them. I emailed kreiger to see if they'd fit a barrel, if not I will buy a barrel one and either have at it myself, OR more likely I'll buy a reciever for about $20 somewhere. Watch this space, and thanks everyone for the input - there are some tremendously knowledgeable folks around these here parts. Before I ever fire the project I'll repost this and we can have a sweepstake on what sort of accuracy I'll get from it.

[wellfedirishman]

Give the bore a good clean with JB Bore Paste first

Before you discount the barrel as useless, you might consider giving it a good clean with JB Bore paste.

Brush it out repeatedly with a patch coated with JB paste on a long cleaning rod, keep changing the patch as it comes out dirty. Eventually you will get the bore pretty clean and shiny, and you can tell what its real condition is.

A friend of mine is an accuracy-nut shooter who swears by this technique on Milsurp guns, and gets great results.

I have used this for cleaning and smoothing worn handgun barrels, it really polished them up.