NRA high power shooting at Ramsur

[irishman]

 I have been away from rifle shooting a while and would like to start again. I have now retired and have some time available.

I had my No.4 Enfield repaired and bedded. It should be more consistant with a new foresight properly installed and not flooping around. Unfortunatly the new foresight is a little low, and I group high at 25 yards. I also had a longer buttstock installed to make the pull length a little longer. 

I have learned to shoot pistols since an indoor pistol range is relativly close to me and available. I shoot Bullseye and now reload for my .45ACP. I will probably start reloading the .303 British once I collect enough brass. The barrel needed to be reinstalled to get the foresight vertical. This means all the brass I had collected is no longer fire formed for the rifle. I do have some new brass and I've purchased the reloading dies. If anyone has some good load information and is willing to share it with me, I would appreciate it.

[Potroast]

Well, Howdy.

I see multiple issues with your "post" regarding your rifle rifle.

You say the barrel had to be taken off and re-installed to get the front sight "verticle". OK, so they tightened it up abit, and maybe went 2 or 3 degrees beyond where it was before. Due to the inherant "springiness" of the cartridge case, I don't think that slight amount  of movement of your barrel will have much of an effect on your chamber dimensions. If it was my rifle and my brass, I'd just re-size them and load away, hoping to get 4 or 5 good leading from the brass cases. I hear that Enfields are "hard" on brass and you can expect a short case life. I never owned one, just my 0.02 cts.

Low front sight blades can be "fixed" in a variety of ways, just depends on what your resources are. A "short" blade could have material added [to it's height] by welding, or a replacement blade could be fashioned from "scratch". You might try and get a replacement blade from a military rifle parts supplier. That way, if one gets ruined for some reason, you will still have a spare.

For load information, there are a variety of on-line sources (like "centerfirecentral.com") that have various loads available, plus .303 Brit isn't all that uncommon, most of the reloading manuals will probably have common, service-rifle type loads using availabe powders (originally loaded with "cordite" spaghetti-strand powder). Tip: .303 shells headspace on the case rim, and the few Enfields that my friends have owned have all had "generous" chamber dimensions- the better to chamber a muddy or dirt-covered round in a heated battel in some trench somewhere. Also, I think that the bolt-head is replaceable, but this is a job for someone that has headspace gauges. I have an aqaintence that claimed to have had his headspace problems "cured" by having his BOLT FACE hard-chrome plated to add "material" where it was needed. I think that "generous chamber dimensions" add to the short case life problem for Brit. .303 rifles. Again, just my 0.02 cts.

As always, your mileage may vary.

[wildman]

Hope to see you at a high power match. First Saturday of the month we get started putting up targets at 11:30.

[kDan]

oh man I wish I could go...  I cleared myself a nice tent spot last February where I could listen to my NPR without bothering anybody.   

But, o well - I'm working Canton/Minerva this week-end.

Wildman, can you hook me up with a schedule of events like this?  Is there a link?  I'm disabled when it comes to finding stuff on this site.  Lucky to find my messages half the time.  But I can find a pumpkin on a fence-post, you bet.

TWO OH EIGHT!

[wildman]

When you clicked on Home Range Events you were there. Look for the sticky that says Schedule and that's where I post the years schedule. Recommend you read all the stickies. The schedule is set in January for the year and we try to follow it. 

You posted this on the High Power thread not the October 25 UN Shoot thread but I happened to catch it anyway. Keep trying it will get easier.

[Francis Marion]

I have been away from rifle shooting a while and would like to start again. I have now retired and have some time available.

I had my No.4 Enfield repaired and bedded. It should be more consistant with a new foresight properly installed and not flooping around. Unfortunatly the new foresight is a little low, and I group high at 25 yards. I also had a longer buttstock installed to make the pull length a little longer. 

I have learned to shoot pistols since an indoor pistol range is relativly close to me and available. I shoot Bullseye and now reload for my .45ACP. I will probably start reloading the .303 British once I collect enough brass. The barrel needed to be reinstalled to get the foresight vertical. This means all the brass I had collected is no longer fire formed for the rifle. I do have some new brass and I've purchased the reloading dies. If anyone has some good load information and is willing to share it with me, I would appreciate it.

For your HP shooting, you're probably going to shoot from 200 to 600 yds.  Why fuss about the front sight height until you know for a fact that it's an issue at the ranges you'll be shooting for HP.  Even if the sight is still too low, you can buy replacement sights from numerous vendors, for example Numrich Gun Parts Corp.  Measure your sight with a micrometer and select a suitably sized replacment.  BTW, for HP I hope you have the micrometer screw-type rear sight, not the sheet metal sprung-pawl type.  The sprung-pawl gives crude (i.e., NOT 1MOA resolution) elevation adjustment.   Numrich, Sarco, etc. sell the micrometer (thumb screw adjusted) sights.
For your #4 bolt head, you can select a replacement bolt head to achieve correct headspace, if needed, from same vendor.  What's the correct headspace?  You'll have to look that up; (I would want to see less than 0.005 inch.) 
How do you check the headspace? 
1) Get headspace gauge(s), or,
2) Get a micrometer or caliper capable of measuring to 0.001 inch.  Get a set of full-length resized brass (NOT live ammunition), whose rim thickness is within 0.001 inch of the max rim size per a .303 casing diagram, and some shim stock (thin sheet metal).  Cut the shim stock into small discs just smaller than rim diameter.  Select the shim stock thickness to correspond to a size which you expect to fit within the headspace, and also select a size which you do not expect to fit (this is the no-go gauge) inside the headspace.   Use a film of petroleum jelly, toothpaste, or similar to adhere the disc to the back of a full-length resized, max spec rim thickness, casing, and then carefully chamber the disc and casing. 
If you can close the bolt with normal effort on a casing plus no-go shim, then you have excessive headspace, and should select a longer bolt head. 
If you can not close the bolt with normal effort on a casing plus no-go shim, this is consistent with having proper headspace- provided that the bolt closes, with normal effort, on a casing alone.  The bolt should also close with normal effort on a casing plus "go" shim, but if the headspace is rather tight, it might close with more than normal effort or not at all. 

Summary:
The bolt MUST NOT close with normal effort on casing plus "no go" shim.  If the bolt closes with normal effort, you have too much headspace, and should not shoot the rifle until this condition is fixed. 

The bolt MUST close with normal effort on casing alone.  If the bolt does not close, you have too little headspace (i.e., interference).  Don't shoot the rifle until this condition is fixed.   

The bolt MIGHT or MIGHT NOT close with normal effort on casing plus "go" shim.  This test, by itself, doesn't give you enough information for definitive conclusion.  Perform the other two tests above also. 

One thing you might do to get the most life out of .303 brass in a #4 is:  with factory new casings, fire them in your rifle per usual, then set aside in a bag marked "once fired in #4 Enfield Serial # ___".  Why?  This brass is now formed to your chamber.  It might be stretched a bit, but your goal is to subject the brass to the least extreme resizing/fire stretching regimen.  You do this by identifying the factory new brass that has been fired in YOUR enfield.  When you're ready to reload this brass, set up your factory full length resizing die per manufacturer's instructions, but add one change:  Apply an index mark to the die and press with a felt pen, so you know where the die should be to full length resize.  Then, rotate the die out of the press one half turn.  This is the next best thing to having a neck sizing die:  most of the casing neck will be resized, but the body dimensions will be displaced less (thus stressed less) than if you had performed a full length resize.  Of course if you have a neck-size die, you would want to use that instead.   
But minimize, as much as possible, the repetition of full length resize cycles for your enfield brass.  Range pick up brass/not-from-your-rifle brass should be full length resized, at least the first time you reload it for your rifle. 
As for your barrel rotation to correct for plumb, it hopefully didn't have a significant as far as your already formed brass is concerned- If the headspace is acceptable now, and the bolt closes normally, that's really all you need.
Plenty of cheap $0.20/shot surplus ball is available, too; will be hard to beat that price reloading.