Unissued British Enfield No.4 MK2 .303 1955

[mrostov]

On an interesting note, since .303 ammo in the USA is expensive (no real military surplus .303 anymore), but there are a lot of inexpensive .303 rifles, a number of people have reamed the chambers on Enfields to accept the cheapest surplus caliber in the USA, which is 7.62x54R (ammo for the Russian Mosin Nagant). Aside from reaming the chamber, the mags have to be tweaked a bit. The Russian .30's use a .310" bullet instead of the standard .308" 7.62mm/.30 caliber bullet, which is very close to the .311" of the .303 Brit round. When reloading both the 7.62x54R and the 7.62x39mm, many reloaders over the years have used the more common .311" bullets instead of the oddball .310" bullets.

 

[British Red]

I wonder (just for fun) can you identify the rifles pictured below?

View attachment 32625

View attachment 32626

View attachment 32627

View attachment 32628

I want to say No 4 Mk 1(T) at the top - the mounts and cheek piece look like it but I cant see the T engraving that I would have expected by the scope mount at the top. Would have expected a No. 32 scope and is that a Garand sling?

Moisin Nagant at the bottom?

 

[mrostov]

The Canadian Rangers up in the arctic still use the .303 Lee Enfield. They are the equivalent of the USA's Eskimo Scouts.

 

[British Red]

The Canadian Rangers up in the arctic still use the .303 Lee Enfield. They are the equivalent of the USA's Eskimo Scouts.

Not for long though

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...les-used-by-canadian-rangers/article20317691/

 

[mrostov]

Not for long though

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...les-used-by-canadian-rangers/article20317691/

I'm really curious to see what the new rifle will look like.

The replacement weapons probably won’t be that much different from the 67-year-old Lee-Enfields, says the memo, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

“It is important to note that despite the date of manufacture, rifle technology has not changed significantly over the past 60 years and the replacement rifle will likely be very similar to the Lee-Enfield.”

They might want to take a look at the Mossberg MVP Patrol. It's a 7.62mm NATO chambered bolt action with a 16.5" barrel, iron sights, a Picatinney optics rail, a threaded muzzle with a flash suppressor, and it was built to use both M-14 and AR-10 unmodified military mags in the same rifle. They have a 5.56mm version that uses AR-15/M-16 mags.

Here are some rifles that I wanted, and right after the first shipment arrived from Australia, they were banned from import.

The Lee Enfield carbine in the photo below is an Australian built AIA M-10, a newly built rifle, not a modified, older .303 military rifle. It is chambered in 7.62x39mm and it uses unmodified AK-47 magazines. The full size Lee Enfield rifle in the photo below that is the AIA No. 4 Mk 4, a Lee Enfield copy built to use 7.62mm NATO and M-14 military magazines.

These are super rare in the USA, but you can get them in Canada. Shortly after they began to be imported into the USA, the US Federal Government banned the import of AIA rifles because they found out that some of the parts (such as the wooden stock, if I recall) were made in Vietnam. Some of the stocks on these rifles, available as an option, are made from teak.

Here is a link to the full size ad photo http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/aia-ad-compressed.jpg

 

[British Red]

Those AIAs did look nice but the importer here stopped bringing them in due to supply problems. We do have armalon though who do all sorts of oddball things to Enfields .223, .30 carbine, you name it

 

[BillyBlade]

I have an AIA in .308 with the teak stock and the heavier barrel. Utter joy to shoot. Accurate as anything I'll ever need and with a 20 round mag in it, the mad minute lets you know you've had a good day out, thats for sure.

I also have a 30 round mag for it. Sadly I run out of shoulder before I run out of rounds with that one!