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Information needed on No4 Mk1/2 |
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Eric762 
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Joined: February 04 2026 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 13 |
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 Topic: Information needed on No4 Mk1/2Posted: February 04 2026 at 10:35am |
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I am from Michigan USA and I inherited this rifle from a good friend that is from England and imported it into the country. When I disassembled it the inside around the barrel was still packed with cosmoline cahilli somebody tried to clean the cosmoline out but couldn't get the screw out that separated the rifle from the furniture. I disassembled and cleaned properly and the barrel seems to be brand new.
The rifle came with the original front sight but is missing the rear. Any information that the experts could give me on this particular rifle would be appreciated. I am headed out tomorrow to see how it shoots. I will be using Greek HXP ammo, hopefully that ammo is Good quality and will give me an idea of what the rifle is capable of. I have purchased reloading dies in plan to reload for it if I feel like it would benefit accuracy otherwise the HXP Greek ammo I have will be fine. I tried posting pictures through Photobucket but not sure if they're going to go through
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Rick
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Joined: April 24 2025 Location: NW MT/SE BC Status: Offline Points: 83 |
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Posted: February 04 2026 at 5:46pm |
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Well, from a brief look at the rifle your friend gave you, if he's still on this side of the grass you should keep him well supplied with scotch (or the drink of his choice) for a few years to come. You have what looks to be a serious rifle for somebody who would enjoy serious shooting with that rifle. I am definitely not an expert, only a guy that spent a lot of time behind Lee Enfield triggers at the range. First, the missing original rear aperture is easily corrected and it will not cost you a lot to acquire one to keep as an accoutrement of the rifle. The sight you got with the rifle more than makes up for not having the original sight... the originals are almost as cheap as borscht, still. The specific details on the rifle one of the actual collector experts can supply you with. I would hope your initial instinct to tear it to pieces to clean it didn't result in disturbing any of the bedding of the rifle which is likely to have been done by somebody using those sights in order to get the best performance out of it. Casual shooters and hunters don't put sights and sling swivels like you have there on their rifles. You have a good chance of getting at least average grouping performance out of whatever year of HXP ball you have on hand. I only have a few hundred rounds remaining from my stashes of '67 and '69 and it groups very, very well in my 1950 Long Branch. I don't recall ever seeing complaints about it when it was regularly available. I wouldn't be planning on regular occurrences of what happened last year - somebody finding another large stash of HXP after it appeared to be gone for many years. The amount of quality surplus military ball that becomes available is rapidly decreasing every year. When your supply of HXP runs out, you are probably going to be in a reloading situation if you want to shoot much. With proper reloading techniques and bullet choices, you should be able to get as good or better performance than from the ball ammunition. If you're going to reload, you'll also get much longer case life by starting out from the very first shot using proper techniques to minimize original case stretching that results in ultimately early death for the cases. Privy Partizan brass is every bit as good as Greek HXP or any other arsenal Mk VII ball ammunition's cases. It is generally readily available, but somebody recently posted that it was now selling for $49/50; I think the last time I bought 500 it was around $33 or something like that. If you don't see yourself shooting that beauty that you now have in your possession much, then none of that will particularly matter as the cost of replacing brass that fails won't amount to much in the long run. Prepping those ball rounds before firing can be done by using what is referred to as "the O-ring trick". It's written about on most LE forums and involves slipping a thin O-ring over the case and snugging it up against the rim before chambering and firing. A bit of a pain, but you will only have to do it one time at first firing. For new unprimed brass like Privi Partizan or once fired cases you have acquired, you can get what is an even better result by forming a false shoulder, then reducing it until the cases chamber with a light crush fit, and then using a Lee collet neck sizing die from that point onwards for reloading. I posted about that in specific detail last year at the link below within the Reloading forum here, and a discussion on reloading techniques and tooling for the .303 British followed in the thread that developed: https://www.enfield-rifles.com/getting-best-results-from-your-303-british-cases_topic14147_post163582.html#163582 If you're going to spend the time and money on components to set up for regularly reload for serious shooting at the range, one of the no-gunsmithing scope mounts that doesn't bubba the rifle in order to use a scope as a low cost investment. And a strap on comb to raise the height of the comb will only run you about $20 - much easier to work and shoot with than pieces of guntape run around the stock to hold pieces of foam and other materials in place to do the same. This is a cheesy picture I just grabbed as I'm about to head out to our indoor 100 yard range to test some different cast bullet loads that I'm trying a few changes with to serve as an example. The real experts here should be along shortly and they'll help you with any details you need help with to get sorted out. Enjoy that rifle!  |
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SW28fan
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Posted: February 04 2026 at 6:23pm |
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It has the target sling swivel' Are there aluminum shims in the barrel channel? It could have been 'regulated' aka professionally accurized. Try 38-40 grains of Varget behind a Sierra 180 soft point which will get you close to mk. VII ball in ballistics
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A square 10
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Posted: February 04 2026 at 7:46pm |
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ill repeat some - its a great looking no4 mk1'2 - that means the original trigger that bwas mounted to the trigger guard has been remounted to be hung from the receiver , that should be considered an improvement , its a complete rifle - not sported or altered ,
the target sling mount and target sight lead me to believe it may have been used in competition - no guess where or under what circumstances but those are nice add ons , they are valuable in their own self , they add to your rifle , your rifle was converted at fazakerley during the contracts post war - ill have to look for my records to tell you which one [unless it was revealed above in that first long post] these were post war make work but are very well done as there was no longer urgency , beautiful rifle and one to be proud of - you have/had a great friend
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britrifles
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Joined: February 03 2018 Location: Georgia, USA Status: Offline Points: 8404 |
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 5:33am |
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It’s likely this rifle was set up for competition service rifle shooting. The rear sight is a Parker Hale 5C with 1/4 minute windage and elevation adjustments. Far superior to the standard Mk I service backsight that would have been on the rifle. The foresight has also been replaced with a AJ Parker Tunnel foresight with replaceable element inserts. Hopefully Mick (Strangelybrown) will come along and comment on the brief period this foresight may have been used at Bisley for SR(b) or early Target Rifle class shooting, in what is called the “Transitional” period. At quick glance, I did not see any markings on the action body indicating the rifle was “Regulated” for UK NRA competition, but it may be there. Fulton’s built up many such rifles with careful bedding of the fore-end, they may have also replaced the barrel.
This is a very nice rifle, I would not mess with it. Removing the fore-end will damage the bedding if not done right. The rear sight alone is now getting hard to find and worth $400+. |
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Bear43
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 6:40am |
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That is a gorgeous rifle and I bet it will shoot well.
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paddyofurniture
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 6:45am |
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A real pries rifle
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Shamu
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 9:42am |
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It seems to also have the "5-round" (which frequently holds 7) Santa Fe magazine? Or is that a different rifle?
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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Eric762
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Joined: February 04 2026 Location: Michigan Status: Offline Points: 13 |
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 10:00am |
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This particular magazine holds 10
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Bear43
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 10:03am |
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Different rifle.
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Eric762
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 10:13am |
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Wow guys I'm amazed. What a wealth of knowledge in this community. Thank you Rick for taking the time on that very informative post. And thank you to all the others who gave input. I just ordered new front sight inserts from Lee Shaver. I had it out yesterday and it shot quite well but I didn't care for the front sight insert that was in it (circle was too big). I'm going to do some load development and see how a Sierra match king does. Also need to locate a proper sling. If anyone has any recommendations on where to get one please let me know.
The plan is to be shooting this in CMP competitions this year so I've got a little work to do before I'm ready for that.
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SW28fan
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 2:10pm |
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Here is the sling:
Now for the bad news if you are going to be shooting in a CMP Vintage Military rifle match it has to be "As Issued" no special sights or special target bedding. I am the CMP match director for my gun club |
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Rick
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Joined: April 24 2025 Location: NW MT/SE BC Status: Offline Points: 83 |
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 2:47pm |
I thought the same - and then I looked at my rifle and saw that the reduced capacity magazines sit far closer to the bottom of the stock. (You can see that relationship in the quick and dirty picture I posted). But now you have me wondering if the magazine holds that many rounds; I've never loaded more than five rounds in it while shooting off the bench at the range doing testing, and never tried putting more than five rounds in it. Now I guess I better go try and find out. I should probably get my friend and gunsmith/Service Rifle competitor to work over that magazine. It is a real bear to get out of the rifle once it's seated home. That's why it rarely leaves the gun safe and usually sits beside the Long Branch bayonet and other tidbits. I doubt it would take Bill more than a few moments to clean both of them up. |
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Rick
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 3:09pm |
You can save yourself replicating a lot of the groundwork by making "britrifles" here one of your closest and dearest friends. What you're writing about is essentially replicating work he's done and ground he's travelled over the last few years, including shooting Lee Enfields in CMP competition. While you're awaiting him seeing your posts and showing up, search this website for his posts on load development, competing in CMP, etc. The MatchKings are, I suppose, as good as any a place to start. But CMP is mostly a close range game, unlike Service Rifle and similar military rifle long distance pursuits. I would suggest that within the ammunition restrictions that apply to whatever matches you are shooting, expand your testing beyond FMJ bullets to find whatever works best. We had "heritage matches" set up by an old Service Rifle competitor for a while in the 90's after the Canadian governments new regulations for AR-15s drove a lot of people to not want to bother with the "Restricted" requirements for transportation, licensing, ranges, etc. It got off to a bit of a slow start because it was open to bolt action rifle with military history, but the ammunition had to be FMJ as well. That was a nod to the history of the past, but a lot who might have competed and had their best loads with non-FMJ bullets like Speer Hot-Cor and Sierra GameKing didn't bother - they just stayed home. Once the FMJ requirement was lifted, attendance dramatically increased when guys could show up to shoot the loads they had already developed. As for FMJ, Privy Partizan has ALL kinds of FMJs for you to try other beyond just the old standby Hornady and Sierra FMJs:   Your Sierra Matchking is the one in the middle; the Hornady to it's right. All the others are different flavors and weights of Privy Partizan - open bases just like the Mk VII ball round. One other nice thing - cheap like borscht when compared to Sierra MatchKings. If they group as well or better... definitely save you some money. |
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britrifles
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Joined: February 03 2018 Location: Georgia, USA Status: Offline Points: 8404 |
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Posted: February 05 2026 at 6:47pm |
Eric, a good barrel will shoot SMKs lights out. If you have Varget, try 40.0 grains. Seat to 3.05 for reliable magazine feeding. Other powders will work, but tough to beat Varget. It’s hard to beat a good 1903 American sling for CMP Service Rifle matches. I use the Turner Saddlery Biothane slings, excellent product. Will be hard to find a Parker Hale sling that attaches to the swivel at the front trigger guard screw and middle sling swivel band, and they are not legal for CMP matches. If you do want to compete with this rifle in CMP Matches, no one will care that much if you’re using the PH rear sight and Tunnel foresight, until you start winning! I had the PH 5C on my No. 4 for a year then began to feel somewhat guilty that I was in violation of the rules (after I learned that the rifle did not conform to the rules!). No one ever said anything to me, but as my scores climbed, I decided to fit the service sights in the rifle to be “legal”. |
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Shamu
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Posted: February 06 2026 at 9:26am |
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The Santa Fe's need a little fitting to work well. I have 2, one is in the No5 Sporter, the other fitted for the No4 Mk2 when bagged. I actually have little vinyl numbers on them so they don't get crossed over because they differ just enough that you have to be a gorilla to get them back out. I have found you need to FULLY 100% depress the mag catch, because that seems to help.
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Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force)
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