Well, bought an Enfield...help/info

[docone31]

That is where paper patching really makes them shine!
Sized to .308, then wrapped with two wraps of lined notebook paper, you will get .318.
sounds like a plan to me.
You will need to get the dies opened up. Send in a sample and the dies to Lee. Took two weeks to do it.
Works great now.

[higgins]

A Lyman 319247 is 165 gr. flat base for 32/40; it might work. Maybe if you posted a WTB ad someone would sell or give you some of those to try. With so many recently-produced undersize Lyman molds out there you might find someone with an undersized 323470. There are also several out of production 319xxx lyman molds. Watch the auctions and you might get one of them for a reasonable price if you're lucky.

[Brithunter]

Ok so you have a commercially converted No4 rifle which is collectable in it's own right.

Yes thats' right there are those who collect the Santa Fe conversions so my advice is to leave it as is and sell to one of them and buy an unmolsted No4 od a bubbad one. The Santa fe's don't come under the Bubba umbrella

[Multigunner]

Well I got around to slugging the barrel tonight. It is a two groove rifling....good??...bad?? and groove dia. is between .315-.316 a little larger than I hoped but typical maybe?
So with the above new info are jacketed bullets out of the question?? If not, any recommendations. Now as for cast...I am not comfortable "reaming" out a mould so what should I do?? Any help will be appreciated and thanks again for all the info. I'm determined to get this old girl shooting.

The .312 Hornady bullets were designed to bump up to fill out the grooves of oversized military bores.
Originally for the 7.7 MM Jap bores, and also found favor with 7.65 Argentine rifles, and 7.65 rifles that had been rechamered to .30/06.
When good reloadable ammo became more readily available .303 shooters found the bullets a good choice as well.

The Two Groove bores with broad lands squeeze the body of the bullet enough to extrude the laket and core into the grooves with a bit of bumping up as well depending on charge and initial pressures.
The MkVII had an initial shock due to the high Nitroglycerine content of the Cordite and hefty primers.
Accuracy using MkVII is about as good as with a four or five groove bore, nothing to brag about, but decent.

The British Two Groove bore has wider grooves, and can handle cast bullets pretty well from what I hear.
Some savage two groove owners report success with cast bullets while others don't seem to ever find a good load.

Only reason I haven't gotten into cast .303 before now is my Savage two groove, now I have a nice five groove No.1 with true .311 bore, an unusually tightbore for a wartime production rifle.
I suspect it may have been rebarreled, but can't tell from the markings.

I've seen shipments of what appeared to be government owned sporterized No.4 rifles. Where they came from I couldn't say but Forestery dept rifles from Turky were coming in about that time.
These were usually cutdown Lebels and other obsolete bolt actions, in varying states of beat up.

[dromia]

The trick with cast in two groove barrels is to use a Loverin or similar multi lube groove design to allow for alloy displacement.

Two groove barrels are accurate and I successfully shot service rifle "A" and "B" competitions for many years with a Longbranch No4 MK1* two groover with a mismatched bolt.

I have a couple of "new" (unfired) two groove barrels on my rack waiting for the right rifles to come along and I have high hopes for their accuracy.

I have an early Savage No4 MK1 in my collection and it has a 6 groove barrel, never got this to shoot consistently yet but that is more a function of stock fit than the barrel.

Another post March project.

[Gerry N.]

Something else you might look for is Long Branch arsenal parts. Savage and LB swapped parts as needed to keep production up. My '43 LB #4 has a Savage magazine and barrel bands. I got it unfired and filled with cosmoline for $50 about 15 years ago. It also has an unmarked buttstock which I've been led to believe is "Normal" length. It also has a 2-groove barrel and does remarkably well with boolits cast in my old Ideal fixed block mold #311299 I got for free in a box of junque being tossed after a neighbor's garage sale several years ago.

Gerry N.