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Wildcatting - Lee Enfield 303 Sporter

Wildcatting - Lee Enfield 303 Sporter

The venerable Lee Enfield has had an illustrious career as the service rifle of choice for the British Army and Commonwealth. Its calibre too, of 303 British, has had as long a history spanning some 62 years from 1888 to the 1950s, when it was replaced by the 7.62 x 51mm NATO, or 308 Winchester as we know it. As with many a service rifle of that period that were replaced by modern self-loaders, but saw a new lease of life in the civilian market at rock bottom prices. Plus, being military surplus, the full metal jacket ammunition (ball-type) was cheap and plentiful too. Many thousands where used as is, but a great majority were cut down (sporterised) for hunting use, most noticeably by the Canadians and Australians.

One British company to make the most of this flood of Lee Enfields was Parker Hale, who offered a large range of sporterised SMLEs and No. 4s in all manner of military models to full blown sporters. I had one such Sporter that was found languishing at the back of a retiring RFD’s hoard.

Cheap custom

They really went to town on offering the shooting public some really hard-wearing and great shooting .303 rifles. These perfectly complimented the incredibly popular and successful PH Safari sporter based on a Mauser 98 action.

The 1967 catalogue shows four pages of differing models of Lee Enfield sporters, ranging from the Standard No. 1 to Custom No. 4s. The former was nothing more than an SMLE stripped, cleaned, re-blued, woodwork refinished with a shortened forend but same military stock. The Supreme and Custom No. 1 were increasingly changed, with the former having a new European walnut stock, 5-shot magazine and 22” barrel with scope mount option. The latter wears a better quality walnut furniture and scope mount.

The No. 4 Deluxe has sporter adjustable front and rear sights but a standard stock modified to sporter use. PH also ground off the original rear aperture sight base and charger guide to give a cleaner look at the rear of the action. The Supreme has a 5-shot mag, 22” barrel, sporter sights and scope mount with a walnut sporter-type stock. The top dog, however, was the Custom No. 4 with an elegant sporter walnut stock, 5-shot magazine, 22” barrel with scope mount and all metal work being deep re-blued. This was the model that I had to test.

Total surprise

All my dealings with Lee Enfields were probably 30-years ago at a local gun club and they never really lit my pipe, I always leaned toward the K98 as a military gun. But holding this PH Sporter I changed my conception quickly, as it was great! It has an overall length of 42” and handles really well; l say this, as its re-proportioned, 22” barrel and sporter profile keeps the 8lbs weight well-balanced.

The action is still pure Lee Enfield No. 4 with its large/longitudinal side-mounted locking lug and cock on closing action, with a rolling lever safety rear/left of the receiver. However, all the metal work is beautifully blued, which, along with the new woodwork, transforms this old soldier into a nice sporter! The sights are new with a ramped, windage-adjustable blade up front and a simple, 6-position elevator/wedge rear unit on the barrel. The 4440W scope mount attaches to the left-hand receiver wall but positions the scope over the action in the normal manner using Parker Hale’s proprietary, 1”, roll-off mounts and dovetail base. In these had been fitted a period Nikko Stirling 6x40mm Gold Crown scope, quite the kiddy in its day!

Surprisingly good wood

The trigger is still the military, 2-stage unit but does feel better than most and breaks at 4.75lbs, but with a lot of creep. The rifle came with a coating of preservative grease that had aged like a skin on a toffee apple and this had kept it looking pristine and a bonus being the bore was in mint condition too. I also liked the reduced (flush-fit) 5-shot magazine, again nicely blued and befitting the classic sporter look.

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Best of all is the new stock! This is not re-worked military furniture, but a classic sporter design so popular in the 1960-70s. The wood is walnut and actually pretty good quality throughout and had an oiled finish to boot. The forend is nice and long at 12” from the magazine front and typically square profiled with cut chequering to both sides and a rose wood tip and old-style white line spacer. The separate butt (remember this is a two-piece design) has that high, Monte Carlo cheekpiece with another rose wood pistol grip cap. The only poor part of the rifle was the ventilated rubber recoil pad that due to age and lack of use had crystallised to a solid state, that will be fun to shoot then!

Field test

The .303 British is now near obsolete, apart from as a classis calibre, and unlike the 8x57 Mauser and 30-06 and other old soldiers, has not prospered. But in its day, it was an able cartridge and is still more than capable of taking most game species. Originally, it was loaded with 70-grains of blackpowder under a 215-grain bullet, which was changed in 1892 to Cordite sticks.

Being a military round, bullet weights were always on the heavier side, with weights ranging from 215 to 174-grains with the cartridge going through eight different versions, a 1-10” rifling twist suited these. The Mk VII was the final rifle pattern, firing a 174-grain bullet at around 2500 fps. The Mk VIII was intended for machinegun use and tended to cause advance barrel wear in rifles. Probably what mitigates against this calibre these days is the fact it’s rimmed, so less support for the case head.

The .303” title is a misnomer too, as the bullets have a diameter of .311/.312” and surprisingly there is quite a bit of factory-loaded ammunition available and bullets to reload for it, such was its popularity at one time. I had three differing factory, sporting loads, along with components for reloading. Light 125-grain bullets can typically achieve just 3000 fps, 150-grain 2700 fps and 180-grain bullets 2400 fps velocity.

Reloads

I used Lee dies, full length sizing, for the reloads and only had some 150 and 180-grain Sierra Pro Hunters to test. Typical powder burn rates would range between Vit N135, N140, RL15, for the lighter bullets to IMR 4350, RL17 for heavier.

Results

My real surprise was the accuracy from this old gun. With factory ammunition across the chronograph and 3-shot groups at 100 yards she really shot well. The Norma’s lighter 150-grain printed 0.75” at 2509 fps/2097 ft/lbs, but 200 fps shy of the factory data. But from a 22” tube I was pretty impressed with its performance.

The Federal and Winchester 180-grain loads also shot well, at 1.5 and 1.75” groups respectively. Velocity and energy was sedate, the Federals were generating 2251 fps/2038 ft/lbs and the Winchesters 2304 fps/2135 ft/lbs. Deer legal but not in Scotland, because of the 2450 fps minimum velocity requirement; I can never figure that rule out!

Reloads were just as good. The lighter 150-grain Sierra Pro Hunters really shot well, with a load of 42-grains of RL15 achieving 2506 fps/2091 ft/lbs. This almost matched the Norma factory load in velocity and accuracy and 1” groups. The 180-grain Sierras fared well, with 40-grains of Vit N140 achieving 2381 fps/2265 ft/lbs, with 1.5 to 2” groups and again similar results to the factory loadings. All these are quite mild, but I never like to push an old military gun and if it shoots accurately; leave it at that!

Conclusions

When reloading, I would always use a full length die set if using once-fired brass, rather than a neck sizing to ensure proper chamber fitment. The throat is quite long on these rifles, so the COL is really dictated by how far you can load out and still function through the magazine. I was genuinely surprised how well this near 60-year old rifle shot to be honest, particularly with the 150-grain bullets. No one is going to buy this sort of rifle as their only stalking gun, but as a fun classic sporting arm what a performer, good old English gun enhanced by a once well-respected company, what’s not to like?

Contacts

Norman Clark 01788 579651 Reloading supplies
GMK Federal ammunition 01489 579999
RUAG Norma ammunition 01579 362319
BWM Ltd Winchester ammunition 01235 514550
Henry Krank Cases, Lee dies and Sierra bullets 0113 2569163
F A Andersons second hand rifles 01342 325604

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