Greetings everyone.  New to the forum.  I'm the recent recipient (temporarily) of an Ishapore No.1 MK3.  It's was bought by my grandfather about 70 years ago and now belongs to my father.  He asked me to look after it and get it into serviceable condition and clean it up and I'll return it to him in a few months.  

I've been watching a number of videos about the rifle and have some experience working on some of my older rifles so I'm looking forward to helping my dad with this project.

Aside from a complete disassembly and de-lousing, my initial priorities are going to be replacing a broken extractor spring (already ordered) and sorting out the head space.  The bolt closes on a Forster field gauge.  I put one round through it with modern S&B ammo and was greeted with a shiny ring just above the rim (but no bulging).  Assuming that will be the "fun" part to deal with.  :)

I was intrigued enough by the rifle that I bought a couple of newer variants for myself (very lightly used No4 MK2).  I guess I should also invest in some reloading dies for 303 British.  

As soon as I have a few moments, I'll get started with some questions and hope to participate in the forums.

Best,

 

I replied to your other post about headspace.

Something to remember with RIMMED cases is that headspace is ONLY the rim thickness, nothing else.

What I believe you have is a perfectly normal chamber with its famous "generous dimensions" to allow chambering in dirty trench conditions.

Are you familiar with the peculiarities of the SMLE rifle & its correct disassembly? If not I suggest you research a little before dismantling as  doing it improperly even once can result in permanent damage.

Yep, I have a disassembly manual and I watched a couple of videos like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfEws5vC3X0" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfEws5vC3X0

It's all broken down now and I'm cleaning her up.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum.

I would not dismiss this.   The bolt should NOT close on a field gage. The “shiny ring” above the case head is an indication that the web of the case is severely strained and close to fracture. This should not happen with a new case, but something expected only after many reloads with a chamber that is within headspace limits. 

While it is not necessarily unsafe to fire, it needs attention. For the time being, don’t bother with reloading the fired cases, they are probably already near the point of case head separation. 

ARGHHHHH!

He missed a very important step.

PLEASE tell me you didn't "lever" the forend off by pulling the front down to free the wood from the action!

No sir.  It pretty much dropped straight down without any fuss.  I definitely didn't force anything or apply any real pressure to remove it.  What was the missing step?

Best,

Making sure you insert & remove the wood parallel to the barrel.

Releasing a sticky one by pulling down on the tip crushes the wood in "The Draws" ruining the bedding.

Probably because the fore-end was not a tight fit on the action body.  A properly fitting fore-end must be carefully tapped off the action with a wood block positioned on the upper back edges of the fore-end just in front of the butt socket.  

Got a chuckle from the video, he makes a great point at the beginning to use a screw driver bit THAT FITS THE SLOT, but then proceeded to use bits that were far too small for the slot!

There is no reason to ever bugger a screw on these rifles if you use the right size bit, both in thickness and in width.  

It was fairly tight.  I basically just put the butt stock on the table and then stacked a few books under the end of the barrel tip so that the barrel was parallel to the table and the gun was upright.  Then I pushed the stock that surrounds where the trigger guard is with both thumbs and eased it down.  It didn't require any tapping/hammering and gradually slid free of the barrel with downward pressure from my thumbs on either side of the receiver.  It is pretty snug though.

Best,

Sauron, Welcome from another relative newbie.

More or less how I do it, except I put a block of 2 x 2 under the action body lugs for the rear trigger guard screw and hang the end of the butt stock off the edge of the table, that way, the rifle won't tip over.  If thumb pressure doesn't release the fore-end, I've got a short piece of 1 x 2 to place along the upper/aft edges of the fore-end.  To avoid applying any crushing force to the draws, you want to apply the pressure at the very back of the fore-end, behind the position of the sear lugs.  

I've probably removed the fore-end on my No. 4 T at least 25 times this way, and it's still very snug, must be tapped off with the 1 x 2 wood block. 

If you intend to reload.303 it's best to avoid the SB ammunition. The cases are generally very brittle and don't last more than a couple of reloads. The PPU ammunition is better for reloading.

The point with the screwdrivers is a good one.

We had a newbie to the Enfield world a while back who must have bought 3 sets of "El Cheaponar" ones before biting the bullet & getting REAL gunsmith's screwdrivers. Luckily he did no harm with the ones he bought.