This can be even more visible on humid or even damp conditions since the pressure wave condenses moisture and can leave a vapour trail that lingers in low wind conditions, didn’t feel real when i saw it first hand
doesn't the way you stack the rims have to do something with that? The video creator seemed to not stack them as Bloke on the Range and Alex C from TFB TV have stated in the past.
@@cantgameright Actually he loaded the Enfield charger clips the correct way: down, up, down, up, down. Either the charger clips are busted and/or poorly refinished, or the rims on those Winchester rounds may not be properly chamfered or beveled. I do notice that the bullets are a bit too long, they barely fit into the magazine. Bloke on the Range used rounds with FMJ spitzer bullets and mil-spec brass. He even tried loading the charger clips the incorrect way, which is similar to how you load a Mosin clip, and it still feeds fine into the magazine, thou not as smooth as if loaded the correct way. Even if you get a rim-lock, it's not a big deal due to how the Enfield magazine is designed.
Just some friendly advice in case you didn’t know. I have a No1 and a No4. If you do use Stripper clips, make sure that the rims overlap each other starting from the first one. So always load it going from one side to the other, instead of just sticking one in the middle and adding one on each side. That will cause rim lock. So just make sure the rims overlap.
That's actually incorrect. The proper military loading method is exactly how he showed it. The rims are supposed to be staggered in the clip. Rim lock is also avoidable by design in the magazine, by simply pushing the rounds down further with the thumb and releasing. This will cause the rim to jump in front. Military produced .303 ammunition also have a slightly rounded edge on the rim to aid this issue. In terms of loading the clip into the magazine, he also did this incorrectly by using the Russian method of prying the rounds downward with the one on top. This is not necessary with .303 and will actually cause more issues, with one of them being rim lock.
I’m just saying that’s the way my two like it. Every time I try it the down up down up way, I usually get rim lock or get jammed, and since I’ve tried overlapping them, they haven’t had either of those problems since.
Idk why, but I love old bolt action rifles, they look soo cool. I am really not a fan of firearms, but these look soo appealing, more like a sort of cool trophy than a weapon meant to kill
I happen to have purchased your rifles younger brother, a 1942 Lithgow Arsenal SMLE when I was 18. My father and I were at a gun store and saw this absolutely beaten to heck rifle in the used gun rack. Being a collector and competition shooter, he looked it over. Turns out it still had the rack markings from a military school on it barely legible. He checked the bore and it was pristine, didn't look like it had been fired since proofing it in 1942. The action was smooth and crisp also with a fantastic trigger. Well I took it home and it would do about a 2.5 inch group at 100 hards, we being the hobby gunsmith we are, dad looked up how the British competition shooters would accurize them and found that they would hollow out the stock around the barrel and pack cork inside, we took a slightly different approach and dad went to town on it with a dremel tool to the point where I was outright scared and we then proceeded to put enough acraglas in it to bed about 10 actions, basically made it a fiberglass stock with a VERY thin wood veneer on it locking the action into the wood like bench rest shooters do and surprisingly the trigger went from being a 2 stage trigger with about a 6 lb break, to a glass break crisp 3 lb single stage. We went to our local wally world and picked up 10 boxes of hunting ammo and I tried it out and with my then 19 year old eyes put 10 rounds into a ragged hole that measured 1.15 inches at 100 yards, we then took it up to a NRA high power match and I proceeded to place 12th out of 87 competitors. We had one of the top High power shooters in the country come up and watch us during the slow fire portion, he asked if we reused the boxes the ammon originally came in thinking we had handloaded all our shells, when we told him we were using off the shelf hunting ammo bc wally world has a special, he snickered, that was until by shear luck, I put the next 2 rounds in the bulls during the 600 yards slow fire. Yeah, we were the talk of the match after that, still puts a smile on my face thinking about it to this day.
I am a smle afficionado and have collected dozens in my life, but the 98k mauser was the best military rifle built and designed by Paul mauser which design is seen in many modern sporting rifles today like in Winchester m70 or ruger and several other brands.
One thing is for Shure, the Lee Enfield series of rifles was the progress of refinement by the time they made the No 4 Mk-2's in the late 40's. they are the most advanced bolt action rifle's made in history. The world changed though with the adoption of self loading rifles and its design advantages for military use. peace - Dave
Here in adelaide sth Australia in 1962 you could buy a brand new lithgow mk3 vacuum packed in cosmoline for 10 quid, we didn't have decimal currency until 1965, with the cosmoline cleaned off the wood work was similar to the rifle being used here but with all matching nos.
I went to a gun shop, guy asked me of I was looking for anything in particular. I told him I'm always searching for used or military surplus. He goes, "Well, I do have this Lee Enfield-" I immediately saw it and said "SOLD"
This is the gun the Aussies used against the emus in the great emu wars of Australia. Can't be reloading for so long mate emus can fuck you up by that time.
That looks like one of the refurbished SMLEs that John Jovino (JJCO) imported in the 90s. They imported military refurbished rifles, and then ones like these with brand new coachwood stocks that look almost orange. Not all of those coachwood stocks had the proper copper recoil plates installed in the forend like the factory Lithgow rifles did, and shooting the rifle without them will cause the soft coachwood to crack and split, ruining the stock. I would recommend verifying they are there before that beautiful rifle ends up damaged. Its not a terribly difficult fix.
Don’t lift the cartridge with your index finger when stripper loading. It causes the rims to jam. Just push down hard with your thumb at the base. I have a 1916 Lithgow SMLE that I use for competitive shooting and I’ve never had an issue loading from a stripper. That’s a beautiful example, my guess is it would be one of the units that was stored at holdsworthy barracks then sold off by their government when they replaced them with the SLR.
I remember in the Army rag in 1993/early94 they were clearing them out for $50 each IIRC. As a single guy living on barracks I had no use for one nor anywhere to store it.
My .303 was made in Australia also but it was built in 1917, No.1 Mk.III. It's in good shape for a 106 year old rifle . I get good hit's at 200 yards +. I learn how to use the stripper clips. Works well for me. Good video.
If you've ever played the old Xbox game Fable , the guards in that game would shout with a British accent "STOP! THATS ILLEGAL!" whenever you committed a crime in front of them. That's what I imagine whenever I see someone load directly into the magazine of a Lee-Enfield, and then load it in lol. The only thing more illegal would have been to reload the rifle by ejecting the magazine and putting in a fully loaded one 😂
My dad carried this rifle in the 60s when he was guarding a conflicted territory for 6 months, glad no firefight happened and he ended up hunting deers 😂, i remember he said he was so thirsty so he shot a group of 🥥 and they just kinda exploded and scattered everywhere 😂.. Powerful rifle!
Just so you know, its best to learn to load using the clip, that has been loaded properly. Rather than hand load the magazine, you still run the risk of putting a rim behind the round below.
Do you mean heavy barrel the 1 that is a sniper or target rifle has a letter H and a T stamped on it, lot of fakes out there if yours was legitimate I would never sell it
I remember a time in the gun industry when no one wanted these rifles and they were $20 surplus rifles at my distributor in 1995. They are a fortune now
I used to buy 100 rounds of 303 at bisley camp for £20 uk. Strate out of a WW2 ammo box still in the bandolier made 1941 or 1942 depending on the day of purchase. Loved firing my No4.
It saide Lee-Enfield Australia funny thing is I'm Australian that rifle came from the UK but since the British worked with Australia through both wars they used the same weapons rifles Machen guns pistols and other things
The old rimmed .303 was first loaded with compressed black powder in 1889.I noticed you had a mix of Winchester Power Point and Remington Core-Lokt ammo;nice.
A lot of ex military ammo in the 50s and 60s was powered by cordite, the later mk7 ammo had nitroes cellulose powder, the only problem with military 303 ammo is the berdan primer which makes for hard reloading unless you can get a berdan primer removal tool.
@@petertarasenko2504 Yes,and Cordite is erosive and very sensitive to temperature changes especially high temps.Also it deteriorates over time,I remember back in the '70s a warning was issued to not fire surplus .303 ammo loaded with Cordite because much of it had become unstable and a number of rifles were damaged or destroyed.
Interesting how much trouble youre having with those striper clips, i know they can be finiky but this is the second vid youve had some trouble with yours
Beautiful rifle...still used in Australia by the military today sometimes for ceremonial purposes... Australian defence force still has a few thousand of these as well as the L1A1 SLR in surplus because you know...why not. And the Lithgow factory still produces firearms to this day (bolt action modernistic rifles for civilian) as well as the new Atrax bullpup rifle for the military.
Two things in a video clip that tell me whoever made it doesn't know what he's talking about: 1. Pulling the nose of the top round up with the finger and using it to force the rest of the rounds into the magazine. Strictly RU-vid nonsense. 2. Loading the magazine box outside the rifle. Something it was never designed for.
