This explains a lot about my own rifle. I bought a longbranch no4 mk1* that has a parker hale sight on it, a wobbly barrel, T sniper style cheek rest and a suspiciously crisp trigger. It groups off the shelf ammo in ways people keep telling me are impossible. I was very perplexed as to how it came to be as it is. Great video!

The historic pressure bedding of rifles, both sporting and military, is a fascinating subject. Thank you!

My first shot was at 3 years old with a #1mk3, dad held it and i pulled the trigger, have been a fan of them ever since. I started competing in full bore in the early 90's, by then most of the #3's and #4's had given way to stuff like Omark's but the few older gents still ran 303's, fantastic to watch their skill, after the 1996 drama's 303's came back big in service rifle.

This video makes me sad. Why? Back in the late '90s, I bought a new (still wrapped) 1954 Canadian Enfield. I loved this rifle! It lived up to it's reputation for having a butter smooth, quick bolt action right out of the wrapper! I produced replica factory performance reloads for it so that the sight markings would be true. First time hunting, and holding dead on, I took a big bodied doe with it at 180-185 yards. It had a stunning affect, killing the deer instantly with a perfect heart/lung shot. Sadly, this rifle was stolen along with many other firearms while I was out of the country on a trip. I only owned it for a couple years, and never had the opportunity to develope new loads or to fit a rear patridge sight :( Thank you for this episode!

Never apologize for going on about Lee Enfield rifles. You’re videos are most excellent!

The ultimate catch in this caper is that the rifles were tuned to ONE, count them, ONE type of ammo; The mighty Mk7 .303 cartridge. Change that ammo and just about everything done to the rifles goes straight out the window. In particular, start fooling around with slower-burning powders and slinky, boat-tailed bullets (assuming you can FIND .312" VLD projectiles at the corner gun shop), and all semblance of original grouping and trajectory ill vanish completely. Furthermore, the Mk 7 bullet is an OPEN-based design with a relatively light jacket and is supposed to "bump-up" at the base when kicked up the backside by the ignition of the relatively fast-burning bundle of Cordite. I mention "bumping up" because of the wonderfully British relationship between the bullet and the bore and groove dimensions. The .303 bit refers to the nominal diameter of the BORE, BEFORE rifling. According to the original factory drawings I have seen, the (mostly) five grooves, cut with a single-tooth "hook" cutter, could be UP TO 0.008" deep, measured from BORE diameter. Thus, if you had a new barrel with a .304" BORE (still within tolerances), and maximum allowable depth grooves, your "groove" diameter could run to .320" and still meet "Mil Spec). All this whilst firing a bullet no larger in nominal diameter than .312". Yes, bullets DO, bump up" but not always perfectly concentrically. I suspect the operating theory dated from the Minie ball and the 1853 Enfield muzzle-loader. A nominally "bore-sized" bullet that was relatively easy to ram down even a fouled barrel, with a thin "skirt" as a base extension. When the black Powder charge went off, it blew the soft lead skirt out into the rifling grooves, sealing the bore and thus optimizing the use of the propellant gases. The clean skirt would also scrape a bit of the fouling from the previous shot out of the way, making it possible to fire a lot more shots before the barrel was seriously gunked up. Historically, military ordnance systems have tended put serious effort into developing a cartridge with specific performance characteristics and THEN, develop the rifle, etc. to perform optimally and CONSISTENTLY with the chosen ammo. Your army might have a million rifles, but in their service life they may easily consume, between themselves, tens of billions of rounds of ONE type of ammo. The list of "changes" to the (SMLE) rifle brought about by the change from Mk Vl to Mk Vll ammo is interesting. That ammo change also necessitated that EVERY .303 calibre machine-gun had to have its sighting equipment and firing tables revised and then there were all the range templates drawn up on the earlier, lower-velocity, "rainbow" trajectoried ammo. Sport shooters do it the other way around, much to the delight of manufacturers of barrels and reloading components and gadgets.

My dad gave me a sporterized 303 m4n1 1945. I had to clean the bore a lot and oil the wood. Tried grouping and it was kinda terrible. After watching your videos and any I could find on KZfaq I figured it needed to be bedded better. So I shimmed it at the end of the forstock and put a hose clamp...I know a hose clamp but you know what it shoots amazing at 200y now. Thanks for the great content. The gun is 76 years old and still bagging deer and moose with federal 180gr power shok sp/bm

I love my Enfield, cheers from across the pond. Great channel and content!

Oh I love guns like this. So neat! Appreciate the vids

you know we love a good lee video!

You are a brave man pulling that gem down, but being careful of course. I just love shooting the old SMLE, my No3 Mk1 HT (1946 Lithgow) with Pattern 1918 Scope especially. Still Waiting for my local range to re-open next month. Great video as usual.

Awesome video, when pulling off my upper handguard on my no 5 to look for the lightening cuts I noticed a brown paper like substance on the handguard where it's retained, didn't know what it was but after seeing your rifles paper on the same spots now I do, thanks!

Great video. Being a high power shooter here in the US I'd love to see more videos on competition there in the UK.

Exploring the gun with the Bloke. What not to like!?

Not sorry, your not sorry, great stuff keep it coming!

Great video. Very informative and interesting. Thank you sir.

Thank you Bloke, I have the same setup on my No4 and have always wondered why it was done this way. Mine appears to have been put together by Parker hale as it has a PH sight, almost exactly the same as yours but without the ability to screw in a lens. It does however have the same rough action appearance , and to my untrained eye ,may have a fully floated barrel. Though on futher in spection, it has a middle bearing :) As always, I enjoy your Enfield videos.

Every time I watch one of these videos, I want an Enfield (again).

Joyous. Thanks very much. ♦️

Never be sorry for delivering Enfield content!!

We need more of this! Hopefully this is not the only episode. You need to talk about the other No4 you have as well and how to set it up for accuracy.

I've owned a Canadian No4 Mk2 and a 2A, both excellent rifles.

Very interesting and educational as always! If you have the time, we'd love to see if she still groups. Cheers, Jacob

Very informative. Rememder being advise....never take your Enfield out of the would unless you have to. Now I know why....gremlins. Very cool rifle...really nice sights. I also liked the historic pictures.

Thank you so much for this video! I immediately ordered the book you showed from AbeBooks, since good literature on accurizing Enfields is nearly impossible to find, here in Germany... However, I do want to keep winning competitions with my two No4s and my post-war production SMLE (made in the 1950s from a 1918 receiver for some foreign gov. contract which apparently never materialised) -- I very much favor them over any other "ol' warhorse".

Thank you for leading me over to this video, im restoring a genuine sporterized savage 1941 NO4MK1T and theres no way I can properly muzzle bed the gun at the moment so I'm just going to center bed it until I can find a replacement forend for it to get fixed properly

Thank you!

So did the rifle shoot differently after dissembling it? (The angered Gremlins)

I have a Fulton regulated No4 Mk1. It is centre bedded, ie midway between the the action and first barrel band. This is achieved with a shim. The action is bedded using what appears to be dark hardwood shims. The rifle is 1 moa capable, not bad for something from 1944.👍

India bed and then free float the rest of the barrel on a sporter stock and it works really good. I got my bullets bullseye at 200yards using a scoped no4mk1 .

Thanks for showing this. My mk2 needs fettling as it's not sitting securely on the drawers. It's in the original military set up rather than centre supported.

Thank you.

Bought a nr4 mark 2 for my birthday last year, still waiting for the license. This lockdown is seriously messing with my life.

I have a Longbranch no4 mk1* that I'm actually thinking about trying to "restore" to original configuration. It's in a "sporter" stock and shoots fine, but I want that beautiful, full wood stock. Also, just picked up a matching 1945 Lithgow SMLE in good condition. Eager to see how she dose at the range.

Very interesting. What about the L42A1 and the L39A1? Was the heavier barrel fully free floated or was there a contact point? How much more accurate were these than the rifles on your table? On average? Thanks you have the best information on Enfields of anybody.

Hopefully taking the wood off hasn't upset the gremlins too much and the old girl still shoots ok. Interesting paper shims!

God I love an Enfield. Have done ever since they bruised my shoulder in cadets lol

cool video. This was all new to me. You will have to let us know if you made the gremlins angry.

I had a rifle that I had center bedded according to a Canadian manual that was intended to make rifles competitive at Bisley. The muzzle and throat erosion were minimal so I figured it was a good candidate. She shot 8-9 MOA beforehand and 5-6 MOA afterwards. Anecdotal, I know, but it does seem to work. However, some rifles are just dogs.

Great video! I Must say though, my Lee Enfield OCD kicked in when I saw the barrel band on backwards. The screw heads should be on the left hand side of the rifle (like the rear trigger guard screw and front sight protector screw).

Thank you for unstocking the rifle for us. If you could do a video on how the stock fitting was done, that would be really great. I've got a No. 4 Mk2 (Savage made) which has had the stock bubba'ed (everything ahead of the middle band gone). I wonder if there's any hope of re-bedding it with the remaining stock using this center-bedding method.

I have a rifle with a 21 inch barrel and its a norinco jw 105. Im thinking of bedding the rear tang , and the recoil block on each side , and maybe a cwnter bed or india for a 3rd spot for better harmonics. Would it work do you think?

"Now, that was not what I was expecting to find at all...." Wouldn't be Bloke on the Range if...... Brits waxing poetic about compensating whip. Americans' eyes glazing over...

10:43 I wasn't expecting to see the bolt handle move when the trigger was pulled. Is that normal on standard versions as well?

would have loved to see u shoot it after disassemblying it to see if any differences in yr grouping

Will you ever show your full collection of guns?

If the gremlins were angered, I hear that an offering of Gin and Tonic followed by a rousing round or two of God save the Queen is the proper ritual. Or hours of assembly/disassembly, shimming and possibly cursing. Cheers. Thanks for the video.

Well it looks like Ill have to be the one to say it. Why did you leave out the paper packer from the rear of the top hand guard after making such a point of not wanting to upset the beding of the rifle? Surely even that affects how tightly the wood work clamps up on the barrel? The late era Aussie no1 {ww2 manufacture} the top and bottom wood in the hand guard made contact with each other and the extra downwards pressure would affect the upwards barrel pressure? Or in fact this has sailed above my head at an unattainable height? Cheers

I have a no 4 Mk j........any help on what this rifle is?? I can not find anything on it.

I had a no4 mk2 recicer with the barrel and its tip was blown off. Sold it for 10$ with full wood stocks but no moving parts, stripped of all parts. This guy who i sold it to put a 308 barrel on and bolt ,magazine , scope moun t , scope , its missing the safety right now and he put it in a 1 piece stock. It looks like a newer rifle. I think ill buy it back from him once it s shooting.

Someone get that man decent set of turnscrews !

I’m terrified of disturbing the gremlins of the stock in my rifle.

Hi Mike, what about the handguard packing?

how dos service rifle work now that no one can own a SA80 ? is service rifle now shot with not service rifles ?

I don't know how anyone could perceive this fascinating video as 'boring'. I own three Lee Enfield civilian target rifles, the newest one being a No.1 MkIII regulated by Fulton and Son of Bisley. The other two are a M.L.E. and a C.L.L.E. It's obvious a lot of research and effort has gone into accurizing the various marks of Lee Enfields over the years with the addition of up pressure and in the case of my SMLE, down pressure by the addition of an extra barrel band 2/3 of the way down the barrel. I'd love to disassemble the No.1 but I'm afraid of two things: that I may awake the gremlins as you so eloquently put it and never, ever re-attain the accuracy of the rifle and the other is that during the regulation process some gunsmiths used asbestos mats to achieve the up pressure on the barrel. If there is any possibility that asbestos was used on my rifle, that is one 'Gremlin' I definitely don't want to awake.

Why did the free floated barrel result in accuracy problems?

Huzzah!!! Enfield rules Mauser drools

Notification gang

Late night blokey😀

Mine is one of the Lithgow W W II SMLE's so I guess none of this would have been done?

I have an _Alf.J.Parker_ No4........a 1949 Maltby. As far as I can tell, apart from stamping his name on the receiver,possibly blueing the action (with little or no surface polishing), fitting TZ4.47 rear sights, a PH front tunnel and putting the odd vaneer shim under the upper wood, old Alf did nothing whatsoever to the rifle that Maltby hadn't already done. And,unsurprisingly, it shoots no better than an issue No4. No doubt there was as much, if not more, chatter and utter BS flying around Bisley amongst the chattering classes about "stocking" and "headspace" back in the days of Service A and B as there is now about Enfields. I suppose one could look at the stocking of the L42A1 and look how that is stocked and consider it the final word on "stocking"

Sorry might be MK L.....old eyes

The lack of block is a let down NgL.

I like apples

My ex enfield :emo: At 4min you are reading, and reading is cheating Sir! 😂

One wonders at times how any of these fussy little guns survive when they dislike their metal being removed from the wood so. How does one clean such guns when you can't get under the barrel lest you incur the wrath of gremlins? Did the British really have that much faith in their underbarrel grease that they didn't feel the need to regularly pull the stock off?

thx, i was scared you would ruin your rifle, should have known better

You are right, that is a nasty rifle. Tell you what, I'll take it off your hands, and save you the embarrassment. Now excuse me as I watch your video a second time.