Accurizing Enfield Rifles

Rifle accurizing is a common gunsmithing task. Normally, the gunsmith would start with insuring the action is properly glass bedded and the barrel is free floating. Maybe he will install pillars and modify the trigger. All that is normal. But what would you do if the shooting is really chaotic, has a one-side, offcenter tendency and does not react to the sight adjustments? Given the barrel is already free floating and the action is tightly bedded, how could that be?

Let’s consider the famous SMLE (Short Magazine Lee-Enfield) Number 4, Mark I* in .303 British. The asterisk indicates this is a version of 1942, produced in the United States by Savage. It is stamped "US Property" across the receiver with a square letter "S" for "Savage" and looks rather like a Number 5. It also has a "flaming bomb" stamp, which is the insignia of U. S. Ordnance Branch.

Serial numbers of S.-made rifle. rifles produced by Savage have the letter "C" incorporated after the second digit and is a count of guns produced. The serial number here shows this rifle was number 360,682 produced by the Savage factory since inception of the SMLE contract. This rifle is famous because the basic design was issued starting in 1895 when a longer Enfield version, called MLE, was adopted by the British Army. It had several innovations, quite futuristic for that time, superior even to the Mauser 98.

Among them is a detachable, doublestack, ten-round magazine, striker cocking Far

on bolt-closing, and the bolt handle positioned closer to the shooter to aid fast bolt cycling. SMLE Mark 1, a shorter and lighter version of the MLE, was first approved for production in 1903 at the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) at Enfield. Originally these shorter rifles were produced as conversions of MLE rifles. The history of Lee-Enfield rifles with all their modifications is well described in multiple publications and online, so no need to repeat it here. The essence of this article is accuracy of the SMLE.

In The Enfield Also shown are four bridges along the length of the barrel to improve harmonics. Rifle, Major E. G. B. Reynolds wrote, "Throughout its many years of useful service the Lee Enfield has had many critics, particularly regarding is accuracy as a target shooting weapon.

Many writers and critics appear to have overlooked the fact that it was designed as the British soldier’s personal arm, not as a target rifle." Despite known difficulties with achieving tight groups, the SMLE was widely used for conversion to sniper rifles. Even during World War I with a sporadic, emergency response to effective German sniper fire, several British companies such as Holland & Holland, Purdey, and others created optic mounts for these guns.

It’s interesting to note, by the request of Army the scopes were installed with significant offset to the left to enable loading via stripper clips in spite of the presence of a detachable magazine. This forced some snipers to aim with their left eye while shouldered on the right. The SMLE was pressed into sniper use not because of its accuracy but because of its widespread use and the immediate absence of another, more suitable base rifle.

There are some references to selection of particular SMLE rifles for sniper conversions by selecting barrels based on testing at RSAF. I assume this logical step was also done by others. Barrel Vibration The rifle featured here came to my shop with the complaint that it shot to the left and would not respond to sight adjustments. Windage adjustment on a SMLE is done by drifting the front sight since the rear sight can be adjusted only for the elevation.

The owner also said several of his rifle gurus already shot it and researched the problem with no result. I took it to the range and grouped it with a commercial load of 174 grain FMJs. All impacts were toward the left and the group was terrible. The surprising thing, though, is that all attempts to shift the shooting from left to right were unsuccessful, even after drifting the front sight to the edge.

After verifying the windage adjustment and grouping problems, I checked for a free floating barrel from receiver to muzzle, the crown for an accurate cut and lack of erosion, chamber throat, and head space. Given these seemed fine, the bad group was really puzzling. The

next best step was to evaluate barrel vibration and harmonics. How does barrel vibration effect the bullet’s flight? First, the growing pressure expands the walls of the chamber, bulging and stretching it in length. This expansion continues until the barrel steel rigidity compensates the pressure. This expansion then flexes back while the next portion of the barrel becomes expanded, which also flexes back.

At the same time, the spinning bullet in the rifling creates a local twist of the barrel tube, which also flexes back, while the next Better but still not good. portion of the barrel becomes twisted and so on. The barrel tube is fixed at the breech end and free at the muzzle. This is important. The combination of these running expansions and twists creates a complicated, wavy movement of the barrel. This vibration of the barrel is known as harmonics.

There are theories and quantitative models of this motion but they are almost useless for practical application at the range. Important is to understand that during the shot the muzzle is a free end of the barrel and flipping in all three dimensions. That creates a so-called exit angle for the bullet, an angle between the straight bore line and the direction of the bullet exiting from the barrel. One of the usual assumptions is that this muzzle flipping is the same for identical ammunition.

The term "identical" here should be understood to potentially have a healthy portion of randomness. At this point we need to make two observations. First, since the barrel stretching and twisting is restricted by the rigidity of the steel, thicker barrels typically have smaller exit angles and smaller groups. Second, in the process of flipping the muzzle at a certain moment is either lining up with the straight bore line or passing really close to it.

In other words, at any given moment the exit angle is close to zero. Reducing harmonic amplitude always reduces exit angle and group size. While harmonics cannot be eliminated, accuracy can be improved by changing the timing of bullet exit from the muzzle. Making the bullet exit closer to an exit angle of zero is the ultimate goal. How one can do that with an already-fit barrel and all its existing characteristics? There are two major ways.

One is to put additions on the barrel which change its weight, geometry, or rigidity. The other is to vary parameters of the ammunition, such as its powder load, weight of the bullet, and velocity. Both ways are shifting the moment of the bullet exit. In the search of optimal exit moment there is no way other than trial and error. This is why Browning’s BOSS system is based on an adjustable weight on the muzzle.

The Barrel Dampener from Limb Saver (LimbSaver.com, is a heavy rubber ring that can be moved and set along the length of the barrel. Both methods are changing parameters of the barrel in trying to approach bullet exit angle to zero. This is also why Benchrest competitors try different combinations of ammunition to accomplish the same thing. Some nonadjustable ways of reducing harmonics and exit angle are directed to increasing rigidity of the barrel.

The Straight Jacket from Teludyne Industries (Teludyne Tech. com, is one of them. Mechanically, this device is a circular jacket around the barrel and filled by proprietary substance. SMLE Testing Back to the SMLE in question. There is no space on the barrel of this SMLE for installation of any damper or other device to change the barrel’s geometry or weight due to the stock and handguard covering the entire length of the barrel.

My first attempt to subdue harmonics was putting four support bridges between the barrel and the stock in four locations along the length of the barrel. They are made out of electric tape and simply wrapped around the barrel. The role of these initial test bridges was to establish a

connection between the barrel and the stock in an attempt to reduce barrel harmonics. The shooting test showed some improvement in that the impact points moved to one vertical line and the front sight could have been moved back to the middle. However, the group was still spread too wide. The pressure marks were different on each of the bridges. This uneven squeezing meant that the distance between the barrel and the handguard varied and some portions of the barrel had more pressure than the other.

This was likely a cause for the wide groups. The next step was to replace the test bridges with a total glass bedding job, making sure the pressure on the barrel is uniform everywhere. This effectively increases rigidity of the barrel since it effectively makes the barrel, bedding compound, and stock into one, solid piece. I was really excited to see the results of shooting after the bedding job, especially since this exhausted all practical options of improving the accuracy of this gun.

Using the same commercial 174 grain FMJ load as before, I fired a final test. I am not a great marksman and had a couple of fliers but the group improvement is evident. Complex vibrations or harmonics of the rifle barrel created by every shot contribute to widening the group on the target by creating a flip of the muzzle. Reducing amplitudes of these harmonics reduces the muzzle flip and accurizes the shooting results. It can be achieved in two major ways.

One is to make the barrel more rigid by increasing its weight and thickness. The other is to change the moment of bullet exiting the muzzle so that the exit angle is as small as possible. That can be done by certain additions to a barrel and/ or changing parameters of the cartridges. All of these fixes are achievable by any skilled gunsmith and can help an ailing customer’s rifle. AG American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.