Sunray
Member
"...you're saying shoot it, then have it looked at..." Absolutely not. Sporterised Lee-Enfields are the most likely candidates for bad headspace. Literally thousands of 'em have been assembled out of parts bins with no QC. Not even ensuring the headspace makes the thing safe to shoot. Especially if the thing was assembled by Century Arms. Bad headspace is almost guaranteed with those.
"...Just eyeballing..." Tells you absolutely nothing.
Lee-Enfields are great rifles, but they have issues caused partly by the design, but also the manufacturing techniques used. First thing you need do is have the headspace checked. Either by buying or renting(easier and cheaper) the headspace gauges and doing it yourself(very easy to do) or going to a smithy who knows Lee-Enfields and has the tools. Do not let any smithy buy 'em as you'll pay for 'em and not get to keep 'em.
Secondly, the barrels can be from .311" to .315" and still be ok. Over .315" is shot out.
Issue is that commercial ammo and reloading bullets come in .311" or .312" for jacketed and up to .314" for cast bullets(Montana Bullets). You need to slug the barrel. That'd be hammering a cast .30 calibre bullet or suitably sized(.308ish diameter), lead, fishing sinker though the barrel, preferably from the chamber end, using a 1/4" brass rod and a plastic mallet with the rifle in a padded vise. (Easier to do than type it out.) Then measuring the bullet/sinker with a micrometer. Use the closest bullet diameter.
What model do you have? A No. 1 Mk III has its rear sight on the barrel. A No. 4's is on the receiver. And the bolt head on a No. 1 slides over the receiver. A No. 4's slides in the receiver. Matters if the headspace is bad. It's much easier and less expensive to fix a No. 4 than it is a No. 1. No. 4 bolt heads have a number on the locking lug. 0 to 3 at roughly $30 each. If the headspace is bad, going up 1 number usually fixes it. Doesn't if the number is a 3. That requires the barrel taken off and machined.
A No. 1's bolt head has no number and fixing bad headspace requires a handful of bolt heads, at $30 each, if you can find 'em, to try with the gauges until you find one that works.
Now after all that, a lot of reloaders started with the Lee Loader. They work and you can load match grade ammo, but the only neck size. Plus those daft scoops, calibrated in a metric unit of liquid volume(CC means Cubic Centimeter.) that has nothing whatever to do with reloading, can vary the powder change plus or minus a full grain. Pitch 'em and use a scale
"...no need to full length size cases shot in just one rifle..." That's not true. Sooner or later you must FL resize. Any ammo fired out of another rifle or BNIB brass requires FL resizing too.
"...Just eyeballing..." Tells you absolutely nothing.
Lee-Enfields are great rifles, but they have issues caused partly by the design, but also the manufacturing techniques used. First thing you need do is have the headspace checked. Either by buying or renting(easier and cheaper) the headspace gauges and doing it yourself(very easy to do) or going to a smithy who knows Lee-Enfields and has the tools. Do not let any smithy buy 'em as you'll pay for 'em and not get to keep 'em.
Secondly, the barrels can be from .311" to .315" and still be ok. Over .315" is shot out.
Issue is that commercial ammo and reloading bullets come in .311" or .312" for jacketed and up to .314" for cast bullets(Montana Bullets). You need to slug the barrel. That'd be hammering a cast .30 calibre bullet or suitably sized(.308ish diameter), lead, fishing sinker though the barrel, preferably from the chamber end, using a 1/4" brass rod and a plastic mallet with the rifle in a padded vise. (Easier to do than type it out.) Then measuring the bullet/sinker with a micrometer. Use the closest bullet diameter.
What model do you have? A No. 1 Mk III has its rear sight on the barrel. A No. 4's is on the receiver. And the bolt head on a No. 1 slides over the receiver. A No. 4's slides in the receiver. Matters if the headspace is bad. It's much easier and less expensive to fix a No. 4 than it is a No. 1. No. 4 bolt heads have a number on the locking lug. 0 to 3 at roughly $30 each. If the headspace is bad, going up 1 number usually fixes it. Doesn't if the number is a 3. That requires the barrel taken off and machined.
A No. 1's bolt head has no number and fixing bad headspace requires a handful of bolt heads, at $30 each, if you can find 'em, to try with the gauges until you find one that works.
Now after all that, a lot of reloaders started with the Lee Loader. They work and you can load match grade ammo, but the only neck size. Plus those daft scoops, calibrated in a metric unit of liquid volume(CC means Cubic Centimeter.) that has nothing whatever to do with reloading, can vary the powder change plus or minus a full grain. Pitch 'em and use a scale
"...no need to full length size cases shot in just one rifle..." That's not true. Sooner or later you must FL resize. Any ammo fired out of another rifle or BNIB brass requires FL resizing too.